A lot has been said about single mothers juggling lives and multitasking efficiently. To break the gender myth we started out on a search for some single fathers around.
But to our surprise or rather shock, our team couldn't even find one!! Really, are single fathers that rare and difficult to find? Well, not exactly.
Psychiatrist Dr. Sanjay Chugh says, "The concept of single fathers is very much there in our society. However, single mothers are more common. One reason for this can be laws related with the custody of the child. Also, there are many couples where it is mutually decided that the children will be better off with the mother and so they are with her. There are also cases where the mother and father are sharing responsibilities but are not staying together."
Taking responsibility of a child all by your own can be quite a task, but is this anywhere related with the general perception that men shy away from taking responsibilities? Dr. Chugh refutes, "It would be incorrect to assume that men shy away from responsibilities whether we talk of raising kids or in general. One must keep in mind that the society has over the years, created 'responsibilities for men' and 'responsibilities for women' and single fathers today are doing more than that.
They not only take care of the conventional responsibilities like finances etc but are also doing many things that used to be the mother's responsibility".
Sapna Sharma, a single mother, has a different opinion on this. She says, "Our society is still male- dominated. Rearing a child all by yourself is very difficult as the child needs to get full attention and so does your work. As far as the men I have come across in life, all I can say is that they might be strong physically but emotionally they can't bring up a child all by themselves. It is not as easy as it seems".
Ouch..! Sahil, a 20- something software engineer says thoughtfully, "I don't think I'd like to adopt or take care of a child all by myself. It's not just a child but a life, a future. I can't play with it just like that. This is a huge responsibility. Such things cannot be done on impulse and have to be thought out seriously." If you have an opinion about single fathers, do share it with other readers.
Image Source: Sakhi
