Reply #169: Perhaps that's why there is such a strong reaction...

[lumberjack_jeff]

...from the male DU posters. Every woman I know who chose badly chose Republicans.

I'm not implying that my wife is any less (or more) suited to being stay-at-home parent. We both have our strengths, but teenage sons perhaps have more of a need for my style. :spank:

But men are more likely to say that they should not have to pay anything because they weren't in a relationship (that's not really going to work for women)

Male decoding 101: "Relationship" means "shared decisionmaking".

Is this a surprise? Would you appreciate being informed that a man you'd dated one time had signed your name to a 18-22 year mortgage on a house in another state that you won't be allowed to live in? Might you take your moral responsibility to keep that house maintained somewhat cynically? And of course it doesn't work for women, because the women you describe had a unilateral choice on what responsibilities the men in your example would assume.

I do agree that some men exist with the attitudes you suggest - and I resent them too. HOWEVER, I think that we as democrats can all agree that people are largely a product of their upbringing. Is it surprising that a child who's father has been systematically excluded from a meaningful role in their upbringing, (A paycheck by itself does not qualify as meaningful) would lack the recognition of the profoundly important role that a father has in a childs life? (A society that invented the phrase "father figure" should not be surprised that subsequent generations don't understand the moral importance of being one)

I personally know examples of courts giving maternal grandparents custody of children instead of a willing and able dad.