babyblog

Traditional Roles

There's a huge difference here in Canada in the roles that partners play in relationships compared to those in the UK. It absolutely must be a cultural thing and it's interesting to note.

Here there is a very traditional / what I consider to be old fashioned split in responsibilities between partners. Women generally have full responsibility for the children and the home and cooking, and the men, generally the major breadwinners, go to work and do the heavy duty tasks like shovelling snow or working in the garden. And never the two shall meet.

Back home I think it is true to say there is a far more shared approach to parenting & working in the home. Certainly for us, and for that of my friends and family, the guys are equally responsible for the kids and dont balk at the idea of cooking dinner or changing a nappy.

I'm trying to be careful not to be judgemental here as I know that people from both Canada & the UK read this, so let me stress again as I said earlier, it's clearly a cultural thing and the expectations the society you live in have of you as to what is 'normal' for you. I can see both angles.

Having said that, on a personal level I hate the thought of not sharing all of that stuff with G. Actually just yesterday we were bickering good naturedly about something I asked him to do and he said something along the lines of I was lucky that he did as much as he did. My response was no, Im not lucky, Im married to you because of who you are and if you were a different type of person I probably wouldnt be, because of the expectations I have from a relationship.

Our division of labour is equal to that of our peers back home and hopefully it will stay that way and not be influenced by all you weirdo canucks ;-)