Equal Parenting

The thought of equal parenting never came in my mind until it was time for me to resume work. When our little one was born, I and my better half had taken a conscious decision to inform both sets of parents about our decision to take up parenting roles solely. I have come across many new parents and always felt that one of the spouses was unknowingly taking a major share of not only the baby's responsibility but also other household responsibilities as cooking, doing regular chores, and organizing the house. This way, the spouse who is overloaded with extra responsibilities wears out easily. This impacts the mental health of the new parent and leads to tiffs in new parents. 

I am listing down few points which can be followed by the new parents and will create equal parenting roles. After all, it’s the journey of parenthood, as the name says it all, involves both dad and mom who take up new roles equally. 

1. COMMUNICATE: Most of the time, mothers take up the majority of the tasks which involve taking care of the household work, cooking, arranging, and so on along with their office commitments. However, dad's at the same time choose to babysit the newborn and think that they are doing their best to support the new mom. But, seldom do they know, that new mom's need much more help rather than just babysitting. The problem here is, men think as long as women do not come forward with any problem, there is actually no problem. Things are as good as they are. So please communicate and share the chores equally. They will be more than happy to help.

Photo by Joshua Ness on Unsplash

2. TAKE OFF:  As a new parent, you and your spouse will need to recharge yourself. Take a break of at least an hour, just for yourself. Get uninterrupted sleep, or relax, or just do anything which will make you feel better. You can even visit your friends for that matter.

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3. CORRECTING THE CHILD'S MISTAKES: When you want to address the behavioral issues of your little one, act as a team. It should not look like, one of the parents is tough to get along with while the other one is a route to escape. Try to sound and act the same.

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4.START RELYING ON PLANNERS: As both of you, will be busy at the office there is a high possibility that you might forget the tasks which need to be completed for the day. Also, if either of you is returning earlier than the other, you can always look up the planner and start off with the task. This way things will get sorted easily and without any tiffs.

Photo by STIL on Unsplash

Finally, parenthood is a journey where we learn from our mistakes. So did our parents and so do we. Enjoy this journey, and you will be amazed to see the results. You will feel like a team tackling all the problems which will come along the way. Wishing you all the best the journey of parenthood!

Shayantini is an engineer by profession and a passionate mommy by choice. She is a working lady and loves to write. She also enjoys gardening, blogging and travelling.

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Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this post are the personal views of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the views of The Mom Store.