Originally Answered: Why are mothers given more importance than Fathers?
We can talk all we want about co-parenting but the fact remains that human beings are carried in the womb of a mother from conception to birth.
The chemical changes of pregnancy cause her body and her feelings to change – and changes continue from conception to birth.
She is hard wired to provide for the newborn in a way the baby’s father isn’t. It is she who provides the sufficiency of breast milk, the best nutrition for a human infant. It is her heartbeat and voice to which the baby has become accustomed during gestation.
So babies are born wanting and needing their mother’s body for survival. If a mother is not there then someone else can provide care – and babies have an amazing ability to bond.
When that someone else is the baby’s father, that is a lovely thing.
But I think you’re correct in understanding that mothers offer something … different. It is something that humans recognize as better for a newborn; like breast milk, the baby is designed to want the warm softness of a mother’s breast for sustenance. It is a survival instinct.
And so, various societies recognize that preference babies have for their mothers in various ways. In Scandinavia, women have for a long time received lots of time off of work following birth in order to provide sufficiency for their new babies. And now men are also afforded parental leave.
Fathers are important too, and family leave policies are evidence their fathering is important to the family unit. But initially and ideally, a baby needs the succor, nutrition, and comfort of her or his mother’s body. Its just the way we are made. It’s our nature.
After a baby is weaned, what particularly greater importance does society give to mothers than to fathers? Babies who have become accustomed to having their needs met by a mother as primary caretaker will prefer their mother; and babies who have become accustomed to having their needs met by a father as primary caretaker will prefer their father.
Society as a whole has paid men more for their work. Women’s work as caretaker of children has traditionally not been as valued, represented by the low pay of elementary school teachers, for example. Now, with men staying at home and taking on the role of primary caretaker, and with women leaving the home (and with hopefully increasing pay and opportunity parity), mothers are only given more importance than fathers in the minds of those who do not understand or live with equal roles as parents.
Do the children who have been breastfed prefer their mothers to their fathers even after weaning, thereby giving mothers more importance than fathers? I don’t believe so. It depends in each case on the relationship the child has with each parent, and the relationship each parent has with each child.
Originally Answered: Why are mothers given more importance than Fathers?
It’s an opinion that’s subtly reinforced every single day in hundreds of ways. I use a brand
Well, I think that ideaology has everything to do with childbirth. But ultimately every person’s experience is different. Personally, I wouldn’t have made it without my father. My mother was abusive and negligent, and very minimally involved in parenting me. My father did almost everything involved in raising me alone. People place a lot of importance in pregnancy, and pregnancy can be hard, but raising a child is harder and a true lifetime commitment. Ultimately a child needs at least one parent who loves and is commited to them , it doesn’t really matter if they are male or female.
P.S. I am saying this as a woman who is currently pregnant, so it’s not like I don’t appreciate the toils of pregnancy.