Oral Presentation Medical Parents of Australia & New Zealand: Art of Balance 2018

Plenary - Parenting isn't women's work  (51391)

Adam White

Although most of us can laugh at it as a completely archaic and close-minded view of marriage, the stereotype of the mother looking after the children and maintaining the home and the bread-winning husband still stands to many as the ideal marriage dynamic.

In this presentation I will provide an overview of my family and our background, and how we came to where we are- my wife working full time and myself staying at home, the main carer of our two children. I will discuss my initial fears of being a stay at home dad and the struggles that I went through in the move from working five days a week in a busy hospital, to looking after two small children and running a household, and only working two days a week. I will also reflect upon traditional gender roles within a family unit and how I think society views fathers who are the primary carers of their children.