I mean, most people arenât. We have a general cultural illiteracy about early childhood development. Itâs incredibly rare to find, for example, jurisdictions where public schools offer courses in childcare the same way they might offer Spanish or Art. Youâre just supposed to âpick it upâ (usually by being a young woman in a family with babies and getting tasked with childcare, which is happening less and less these days).
(And when schools say theyâre teaching âwhat itâs like to be a parentâ theyâre usually not teaching useful parenting skills, just trying to scare kids into not having sex.)
But for what routes there are, most boys are totally excludedâmany girls begin babysitting strangersâ children to earn an extra income as young as ten, a practice which boys have typically been considered too dangerous to participate in. When public schools do teach classes about childcare, theyâre generally aimed at teen moms, not all students in general. A lot of parent education and bonding programs are specifically aimed at âmomsâ and act like cats with boots on when dads show up.Â
This is something I care about a lot because I care about preventing child abuse, and the no 1 way to do that is to educate parents about basic child care, like âItâs not good to just prop a baby up with a bottle all the timeâ or âYes they WILL scream for no fucking reason for the first three months, learn to live with itâ or â3-to-5-year-olds donât lie to your face because theyâre bad kids, theyâre just learning how reality worksâ.Â
These are the kind of things a lot of parents simply donât know, because nobody tells them and trying to look for good parenting advice on your own today is like walking with pizza into a room thatâs on fire. But men, especially, are put at a disadvantage when it comes to learning them.
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