Language is a good indicator of what a culture values. The dictionary definition of mothering is “the nurturing of an infant or small child by its mother.” Parenting means “the rearing of children.” Fathering means “a male parent.”
Mothering is highly valued and appreciated in our culture; when people are sick or sad, they want to be mothered. The value of parenting is likewise recognized, as any number of books, blogs, and classes on the topic will attest. Fathering, however, is generally used only to signify the man who supplies genetic material.
If mothers stopped mothering in mass, we would recognize it as an extraordinary problem requiring immediate rectifying. Yet one in three children live in homes without fathers. Rather than trying to aggressively change that statistic, the bulk of our energy is devoted to ameliorating, not reversing, damage.
Yeah and we don't call having 22 children by 14 women a father.
ReplyDeleteHappy Father's Day to all you fathers out there.
ReplyDeleteYes, Dads - there helping raising their kids - are important, too!
Signed,
A Mom who appreciates her kids' Dad