Contemporary Roles of Parents (Essay Sample)

Contemporary Roles of Parents
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Institution
Contemporary Roles of Parents
Parenting roles has become a challenge with the changing times where equality has been the sought after attribute especially amongst women. They have equal chances to job opportunities, and most of them are keen on making the best out of their careers. It is, however, a worrying trend with regard to the new roles that the women have. Most of the women have become so engaged in their work activities that their positions in the house has been left at the periphery. Women have found it difficult to balance between work at home and their careers (Higgins et al., 2000). It has become a daunting task to have an equitable balance between acting as mothers and wives with a lot at stake with regard to their career.
The difficulty in achieving the balance has impacted negatively on the responsibilities they have over the children and even to the men who are seen as sole providers. It has become difficult for the women to find time to tend the children or their husbands as required. The impact has resulted in children being left in the care of babysitters. The woman barely has time to spend with the children, who need her to be around. Additionally, the husband is left to assume the role of tending to himself and the children. The scenario significantly severs relations between the couples since there is a feeling of the gap existing. As seen from the story of Evan and Nancy, the woman is quite engaged that she finds it quite difficult to balance her as a social worker and her role as a mother and wife. The case scenario of the two is an indication of the effect the changing roles of women is impacting on their families. The men have to offer a helping hand in addition to being the sole providers. Women should cut a balance between their careers and their roles as wives and mothers (Ward & Wolf-Wendel, 2004).
Domestic and childcare responsibility cannot be shared equally. Much as the men have a duty to help with the house chores, the buck stops with the women. Achieving equality in the responsibilities can be difficult because men tend to be forgetful and cannot be consistent. As evident in the book by Skolnick, Evan has been portrayed as someone who is quite forgetful with regard to the house chores. Despite the two discussing at the beginning on how they would each perform tasks in the home, Evan has not been fully cooperative, an act that cannot be blamed entirely on him. There is need, however, to discuss on what one can do best in order to reduce the burden of the other. Much as the woman of the house has the sole responsibility of taking care of the children and other domestic needs; it is important to have in mind that they too get exhausted. Considering the changing roles of women, some of them come home tired from work to do anything. The man and the woman can come to an agreement on what each can do. It should not appear as one is being forced to take responsibility for something they cannot do. For instance, the arrangement made by Evan and Nancy that she does all the "upstairs" jobs as Evan takes care of the "downstairs" is a working agreement. It is reasonable for Evan to get busy with the garage work and to tend after the dog than getting involved with the laundry or having to cook dinner. All that needs to happen is for the man and woman to discuss on what works best for everyone so that it doesn’t appear like they are being coerced to do a particular task.
It is important that one of the two couples take primary responsibility for particular chores. It is mandatory in that it would be easier for one to know their roles. For example, if one has the responsibility of doing laundry, then they should do that and not have the other person take over the role. However, the primary responsibility one has should only ...