Let's just be parents

I was thinking about how as a society we tend to label ourselves, but sometimes the labels we give ourselves can have a negative effect. One of the most used labels recently is the term, ‘stay at home dad’ or abbreviated to ‘SAHD’.

I beg this question why. You certainly don’t see the over use of ‘stay at home mum’ or ‘SAHM’. I rarely see this shortened down. I am not criticising or demeaning dads who are the main childcare provider, as I am after all doing it part-time, but i wonder why is it important for dads to be known as stay at home dads? After all we are all just parents staying at home or working. 

I am all for mums and dads taking the role that’s suits them best whether that’s dads working or mums working. So often people do it for financial reasons, or mum or dad can possibly work from home and consequently do childcare at the same time. 

But this is the thing, whether you are a mum or a dad wouldn’t it be better to call us stay at home parents. Because after all that’s what we are. 

If you are a dad or a mum most of us are equally as good as each other in childcare. At the same time it doesn’t matter whether you are a mum or a dad. People excel at different things when it comes to childcare. 

I know I am without question a better footballer than my wife, but she is far better at craft making than I will ever be. So our abilities balance each other out. 

In the world of blogging there seems to be a massive emphasis on dad bloggers and how unrepresented we are. It is without a doubt, right. We are at major events and truth is we always will be. Really the dad bloggers ratio to mum bloggers ratio is most likely 100 to 1, and that’s not going to change anytime soon. In all honesty, blogging is dominated by women and a lot of mums. 

Dad bloggers are beginning to increase, but it will never reach the levels of mum bloggers, however we have a voice and yes it’s beginning to be heard, but again this is all about labels. Why not refer to us as parent bloggers and do away with the division? Just an idea. This year what was previously known as Britmums live is now BML live. Please! Everybody still calls it Britmums and it will continue to be called that for a long time to come. 

In my humble and unimportant opinion, I believe that whether you are a mum or dad, whether you work or not, whether you stay at home to look after the children or not, we are just human beings. We don’t need labels to make us better mums or dads, or bloggers for that matter. We are just people. 

Would love to know what you think.