Do Dads Do 'Glory' Parenting?

Do Dads Do 'Glory' Parenting?

Does the man in your life indulge in a spot of glory parenting?

According to psychologist Jo Hemmings - quoted in a piece for the Mail - that's taking credit for the more high-profile tasks involved with family life, whilst leaving you to do the rest.

Examples of glory parenting are taking all the credit for the 'fun' tasks like manfully serving up the Sunday roast, after you've spent all morning slaving over a hot stove to produce the goods.

Ooh, this enrages me. I don't doubt that there are dads out there who are 'glory parents' but to tar them all with the same brush would be sexist and demeaning - to both mums and dads.

The article suggests that dads might slide into glory parenting as a result of a sociological shift towards men being more involved in family life and domesticity, with women 'offering up' the kind of tasks for dads to take over which generally earn them a bit more glory but require less muck and hard graft.

Now excuse me for getting my knickers all a-twisted but I don't 'offer up' any household tasks to my husband. I merely assume we'll divvy up our domestic lives fairly equally and both do our share when it comes to household tasks and raising the kids.

My husband shopped for dinner for us and the kids tonight and cooked it all from scratch. Then he cleared away. Right now he's putting our youngest to bed and he'll probably even make our bed later once he clocks that I've got as far as washing and ironing the bedding but haven't actually managed to put it back on the bed. Glory parenting? No way. He pulls his weight just like most of the other dads I know.

If anything, I might be the glory parent.

But what's your view? Is your other half a glory parent or do you think the whole notion of dads as glory parents is wide of the mark? Do you share parenting duties and household tasks equally, or is one of you prone to a spot of glory parenting? Come and tell us how it works in your house and what you make of glory parenting over on our Facebook page.

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