A series of comic illustrations that highlight unfair double-standards on parenting
It’s 2025, and yet we still live in a world where parenting double standards abound. For heterosexual couples, dads are often celebrated for doing any run-of-the-mill parenting task while moms are expected to handle the bulk of them without so much as a pat on the back.Well I definitely hope it's not to slam dads, though there certainly were alarming mentalities in the past decade where would-be fathers refused to defend their daughters honor and dignity when men identifying as transsexuals would be allowed to enter women's sports competitions, in example. But do dads really not get criticized for spending time on the mobile phone while strolling their kids around? Good question. If you're in a playground with your children in a burg like New York City or Chicago, which have dangerous crime rates, neither dad nor mom should divert their attention away from their child's safety, and definitely should be in solid close range.
Mary Catherine Starr — an artist, yoga teacher and mother of two based in Cape Cod, Massachusetts — is the woman behind the Instagram account @momlife_comics. Her 2022 post titled “An Illustrated Guide To The Double Standards Of Parenting” highlights some of the major differences in how society views moms versus dads.
[...] “I’m tired of our society applauding dads for handling the most basic of parenting duties and expecting perfection from mothers,” the artist told HuffPost.
The scenarios illustrated are based on Starr’s own experiences as a mom in a world that sets the bar far lower for dads (even though they’re just as capable).
“People have said lots of things to me that they would never say to my husband,” she said. “For instance, once, when my daughter was young and I was pushing her in the stroller and looking down at my phone, a neighbor called out to me that I ‘should pay attention to my daughter instead of my phone.’ I know he never would have said that to my husband.”
Another example: when people say a dad is “babysitting,” but what he’s actually doing is parenting his own child.
“People will ask moms, ‘Who is watching your kids?’ when they’re traveling or out at night, but don’t ask dads that,” Starr said. “Moms are expected to stay home from work when their kids are sick, and dads aren’t. And, in fact, often dads aren’t given the same flexibility that moms are given when their kids are sick.”
[...] Starr stressed that the purpose of these comics isn’t to bash dads. It’s to make us more aware of just how differently moms and dads are viewed when they’re doing the exact same thing.
I'm no scientist or psychologist, but I get the strange feeling the real reason the aforementioned neighbor told the mom about the phone wasn't altruism for the child's sake, but rather, to be a wet blanket and insult a woman's intellect with a cheap shot. And if the neighbor wouldn't say that to the dad, is it possible it's because the dad would throw a fit more easily than the mom, and yell or slug away? Of coures that would be wrong, and do a terrible disfavor to the daughters and sons in his care. As for me, I can say that, if anybody spoke like that to my wife in a way that wasn't altruistic, I'd be outraged and want them to apologize for being so judgemental.
So I'll give Mrs. Starr this - if she feels there's any kind of double-standard on moms as opposed to dads, then congratulations to her for bringing it up, and if a mom is holding the stroller while reading the mobile phone simultaneously, then of course it's not like she's literally neglecting her children. If anybody who feels parents need to be more responsible with their children really wants to prove they're not lacking in altruism, then they have to show the courage to tell a dad the same thing they'd tell a mom, no matter his reaction, period. And no doubt, there's only so much more that could be done to prove we believe in equal responsibility for both dads and moms.
Labels: misogyny and racism, msm propaganda, politics, science, technology