Reply to Second Shift - sucks for dads too

Forum Index » General Parenting Discussion

Reply to "Second Shift - sucks for dads too"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]When I see these posts, I always wonder if the OP had a SAHP or is generally unobservant. I and most of my millennial friends came from dual income families and our lives are pretty similar to what we grew up with (particularly those with transplant parents). In many ways, I have it easier than my parents: remote work exists, I have more disposable income, cities are much safer. Yeah, it’s a ton of work, but that’s not new. [/quote]

I’m a little older that you (tail end of Gen X) but agree with this. My parents both worked FT and had four kids. My mom did work PT for a couple of years (5?) when she had all four of us kids back to back. I don’t remember my parents really having any free time until we were much older. Maybe after 9pm or on a Saturday night or something. They also didn’t have much $. We were working class.

I will say that some things were different then, which probably made things easier. We didn’t have any family in our town but there was more of a sense of community & seemed to be more flexible childcare options. My parents used daycare but also knew several middle aged or younger elderly women (neighbors, friends from church etc) who babysat for pocket money. Also teenagers actually wanted to babysit to earn spending $ and did not charge terribly much. So when daycare or main options fell through, there were always affordable/accessible alternatives.

There were also fewer expectations of parents in terms of “entertainment”, activities, etc. We mostly just played with whatever other kids were around, went to the park etc. They were not running us back and forth to various sports etc. I think I grew up on the very tail end of the era where this was “normal”.

Kids also had a lot more chores and responsibilities, and were expected to fend for themselves for a few hours  (or supervise younger siblings) from much younger ages than would be considered normal now.

I don’t know that all of the above is necessarily “better” but it was different than most families today, for sure. [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics