#It takes two to raise a child. Although an entire village can seem less!
brought to you by Namrata Patil Thadani
There have been various surveys to show that it takes 2 people viz. the father and the mother to raise a healthy, holistically developed child. In India, we were mostly raised in joint families where almost every lady was involved in some baby work or the other, whereas the male members were responsible for earning for the family. Also the mothers were mostly “Home Managers” and hence the main responsibility of looking after the baby was considered to be that of the mom. Now with the changing times and lifestyles, where both the parents are working outside to support the rising costs and needs of the family, it is very important that babycare is handled by both equally since the baby belongs 100% to both parents.
During the birth of my first son in 2008, I was with my in laws in Chandigarh and then with my parents in Pune for almost 6 months while my hubby was living in Mumbai. He was with me in Chandigarh post the delivery for almost 10 days and I remember how sincerely and lovingly he would help me with baby chores like expressing milk, diapering, bathing, etc.
He would be up with me every two hours at night to feed expressed milk and burp my little one. He was a huge help around and I was amazed at how cool he was; unlike me who was quite jittery and nervous.
He, however, missed seeing the elder one closely initially due to us being in different cities and later since his work involved lots of travel.
Our second son was born last year and this time around my husband seemed more confident and hands on. He is the one who bathes the boys on weekends and makes it a fun activity.He also takes the little one for strolls outside. Once he is back from the office, the evening diapering is his duty as I get tired with all the running around thanks to an extremely active little baby at home.Sometimes however #ItTakes2 to change the diaper as the little one just does not stay in one place during changing time.
We both are learning daily through our own experiences about how to be better parents.
Research as well as surveys (like the one recently conducted by Nielson in collaboration with Pampers) reinforce the fact that a child's overall as well as cognitive development is better when both parents are equally involved.
It is a very noticeable and progressive trend in a patriarchal society like ours to see the total involvement of even the father now in most household and baby chores especially the not so pleasant pee and poop cleaning duties. Thanks to the introduction of diapers that has made this task seem so easy and convenient.
My husband and I totally endorse the views of the experts (as per the survey) that says 97% doctors believe that both parents must be involved for baby's development
93 % Doctors agree Father's involvement in baby care leads to stronger development of cognitive skills in the baby
So here's to the dads of today who are slowly and silently getting involved in the day to day babyhood tasks and are not complaining or even expressing it so overtly or talking much about it.
Happy Parenting dear Mums and Dads!!!