Actress calls out 'insulting' double standard of praising dads for taking care of their own kids
Parents are sounding off after actress Jenny Mollen revealed why she isn't "lucky" that her husband of 10 years, Jason Biggs, is an involved dad.
Mollen, who has two kids with the "American Pie" star, reminded her followers that a double standard still exists in parenting.
"Nobody would ever say to a man, 'Wow, you are so lucky your wife feeds and bathes your children,'" she wrote. "For women, it’s expected to love and protect and show up for soccer practice. For men, an hour or two alone with the kids on a weekend somehow warrants a trophy."
Mollen posted her thoughts on her Instagram page where thousands praised her for keeping it real.
"Boom So true, my hubby is just AS involved as I am," one person commented.
"As someone who has an 8 week old baby and is barely holding it together this post is what I needed today," wrote another commenter. "My husband and I decided that have a child together and that means equal involvement from both of us."
Other people wrote about how they wish their spouses wouldn't say that they are "babysitting" when they are caring for their own children.
"We need normalize that family is about team work," one commenter pointed out.
Neha Chaudhary, a child psychiatrist at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, agreed that there is a cultural assumption that women will do more than men in caring for their children, despite the fact that many women also have full-time jobs outside the home.
"Men are being rewarded because the basic expectation is not yet that they would do an equal amount of parenting," Chaudhary told "Good Morning America." "So for men that do, they end up getting a lot of praise. But really, if we want to shift the culture, we have to shift the expectation [to] where we're expecting both parents to be just that."
Chaudhary said that parents may be missing an opportunity to help kids thrive by equally being hands-on.
She said simple things both parents could be involved in are reading with kids, helping with schoolwork, eating dinner as a family and playing together.
"If we really want kids to thrive and reach their potential, then both parents need to be hands-on," she added. "A little bit goes a long way."
