What’s Wrong with Men, Taking Paternity Leaves?

Paternity leave is a new concept here, translated…

Whenever I’d have the spare time, I’d taken my two-and-a-half year-old son to sightsee, and, due to chance, I’d met Yu’s mom, who’s around my age, and, our sons being the same age, and so, we have a ton of experiences to share with each other.

Yu’s mom is a very capable, able-bodied woman, during the days off, she’d always taken her son all over the places, and made sure that her son gets into the experiences that will be enriching to his life, although she has a stable job as a manager at a known enterprise, but, in order to accompany her son in growing up, she took two years’ worth maternity leave.  Recently, she’s about to return back to the workforce, and, after she’d discussed things over with her husband, Li, she’d decided to “transfer” her son to under her husband’s care.

And so, Li also took a two year paternity leave, and became a full-time daddy, and from time to time I’d called Yu up, she’d commended her husband, “my husband is truly amazing, not only is he very patient in changing my son’s diapers, when my son started throwing his fits, he’d kept his patience and communicated with him, making my son willing to behave himself.  I’m truly grateful to him, for letting go of his status quo, and not be limited to the traditional beliefs of ‘men in charge of outside, women in charge of inside the households’, I’m thinking, that his job as a full-time father is harder than mine!”

The purpose of working and making money for most people, other than satisfying to one’s own materialistic needs, the most important being “keeping a family”, and still, whether it be single or dual income, taking care of the household, or bringing the paychecks, we should all remain flexible, and find what fits us individually, instead of getting affected by how others’ opinions may affect us, or how we’re being perceived by others, Yu and her husband would be the best example for this.

And so, this, is what compromises look like, because the wife took her maternity leave to care for the child, and now, as she’s returning back to work, her husband took on the responsibilities of staying at home with their son, and, this man didn’t let his ego get in the way, instead, he’d enjoyed interacting with his young son, and, he’s still NOT missing out on his own offspring’s growth processes.