chicagodads

(Caveat lector: I know that the Chicago River is frozen over at the center of the city. However, don’t try walking over it.)

So, why may we ask, would someone with all of that experience and practical, hands-on love neglect such an easy yet essential issue as changing a diaper? Maybe he figures that those days are over or maybe he’s actually forgot how (funny how our minds work – or don’t). But the truth is that he is more likely to find another woman to take care of the business end of that stick when possible. And no one seems to mind or even give it a second thought. (Note: I am curious and running this through my head. I do not mean to sound judgmental, but I realize that I often do.)

Why? Because it’s not expected of him, that’s why. It’s not expected that men would do the child-raising. Yet, I think that we’re going to have to rise above this stage if we are going to be engaged in the lives of our own children. My theory is that we men leave the home because we are not tactile with our own children, therefore we do not feel that we are connected with them in the way we may be with our vinyl records, cars or bushy, bushy beards.

Men, we have let ourselves slide from responsibility in the area of child responsibility. My brothers, we’ve allowed other people to tell us that we should have nothing to do with raising children but supplying the dollars. And when we see how much we’ve been minimized in the family, we split. And who can blame us? Gimme some hands-on. Allow me to prove myself a parent as well as a provider. Until then, let me change a diaper or two.

But, y’know, don’t get carried away.