1950's dad

Just when you think you are making progress with the Feminism for Dads training he goes and says something daft.

During our conversation yesterday about possible relocation we were discussing living in the UK. If we live there then I would be the breadwinner and Mr. C would have to either do childcare or accept that whatever job he did the main of his pay would pay for childcare.
In the course of this discussion Mr. C said something along the lines of;
"But I'm not going to stay home with the baby."

Which is a perfectly reasonable thing to say but the implicit aside here is; "that's woman's work." and I think he did actually say it was more "natural" for a woman to stay home.

If you are a breastfeeding mum then logistically the feeding part of childcare is easier if you are the one to stay home, but it isn't impossible to go to work and have someone else use expressed milk to feed your child.

Just to get things straight Mr. C isn't against me working, he isn't that reactionary, he just worded things a little bit badly. He was also honest enough to own up that he enjoys looking after the baby at the weekend but wouldn't want to do it all the time.
But again there is an implicit assumption that I enjoy the childcare because I am the mum. I do enjoy looking after Baby C. but not every moment of every day. But who enjoys every moment of every day of their job?

It has taken me a while and some careful manouverings to get Mr. C to appreciate that looking after a child can be taxing too. I really tried to avoid the classic "childcare is work too" argument as it shouldn't be a competition as to whose time and effort is more valuable. The way I see it there are different jobs in the family that need doing, someone has to earn the money and someone has to care for the baby. Both need doing and both are important.
I went along the lines of; "thank you for going out to work for us this week" backed up with a "yes but I don't get a day off from looking after the baby" when faced with his; "but its the weekend I want to enjoy my time off"

I have to say that Mr. C can now get up with the baby at the weekend and take her downstairs, bring me a cup of tea in bed without prompting. Of course it helps that we are living with the French-in-laws so he can just hand her over to them for an hour or so. But hey its progress.