Originally posted by: .Lonewalker.
Ermmm, contrary to what you think, a young kid, do need parents with him/her to be taken care of properly. I was not talking about 7-8 years old kids. I was talking about newborn babies upto the age of 5-6 years. That young babies do need parental care. But unfortunately, most jobs wouldn't give any parent that long maternity leave. Mostly it's for just 6-7 months. Leaving a 5-6 months old baby alone or in care of a stranger is not a healthy way to bring him/her up.
Had you read my post more carefully, you would have realised that I am in for ANY parent doing that. Not necessarily just the mother. But yes, mothers need to be there for the baby for first 1 year at least. Because the baby needs breastfeeding. Also, this break helps the mother to recover too. After the first year, the father can take over. I am not against that at all. How am I pushing stereotypes just by stating few facts?
More than me, I wanted to point out my mother's struggle. Govt jobs might have it a little bit easier, but private sector jobs are very demanding. You need to work 8-10 hours a day. Add in 1 - 2 hours more as traveling time. So you are spending 10-12 hours outside the home. After that you are most likely to be exhausted. So managing household chores and then taking care of children do get tougher after that. It might look so easy from the outside, but it is not that easy. I was just pointing out that. People who manage that successfully, manage that by putting in their everything & they are most often left exhausted, stressed, both mentally & physically. I nowhere said that women should not aspire to have a career or women should be content at being housewives. I just said we should salute the women who manage to pull both off. We should appreciate them & not take their hardwork, sacrifices for granted saying it's no big deal. It is a big deal.
And I am opposed to imposing this tough schedule forcefully on others who have means to bypass this. Because everyone do not have it in them to go through that & not everyone is good at balancing them. Every human being is different, their energy level, stamina.... everything is different. Humans are not machines. So people need to make choices based on their own limits. Being a career woman is good. But being an at home mother is nothing to be ashamed of either. As long it's her own choice & not forced on her.
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