The birth of baby into a home especially for the first time can come with different feelings, excitement, stress and more to be responsible for. The parents are obligated to give only the best to their baby so he or she can grow healthy and strong. To make this possible, the efforts of the adults (parents and other guardians) is required.
Mothers allowed to go on maternity leave is a great idea, they play a very big role in strengthening that tiny and weak baby especially in the feeding aspect. It only makes sense that a mother who has just delivered stay away from other work and focus on her baby.
If the mothers have this in place, enough time to focus on their babies, do we still think a paternity leave is necessary? I'll give two scenarios.
My aunt had her first child and for the first three months, she did almost nothing aside cleaning up herself and breastfeeding the baby. This is because a few of her relatives visited to help out and the husband just goes to work, come back in the evenings, spend time with the baby and then goes to bed early enough for the next day's work.
On weekends and when the husband closes early from work, you'll see him doing some house chores to reduce the work load on those at home. Nothing the mother or baby needed that wasn't provided for them by the husband but he wasn't always around to do the much he really wanted to do because he had a job to secure to keep providing for the family.
That's one scenario... No paternal leave but the father tries his best to be available when there's no work and on weekends.
A neighbour had her first child and the father who got lucky to be at home always with his wife and baby, would ignore and spend long hours outside before coming home to his family. He relied totally on the relative of his wife to do all the work and he was finding it hard to keep up with the expenses since his pay has stopped coming for that period of time.
The wife had to get stronger faster and take care of her baby as much as she can when the relative left, until the father resumed his work in the office. It was almost like he shouldn't have taken the leave at all but at least, visitors got to feel welcomed when they came around to see the baby since he made sure of that.
Another scenario... A paternal leave but father didn't play much role in being available.
Let's face it, this paternity leave is all fine and good to help out with the stress that comes with having a tiny and weak human in the home but I do not think it is necessary to have it declared as it is with maternity leave. There are only a few jobs that take husbands or fathers away from home for days, weeks and even months. In the first place, such a job isn't a very good idea for a healthy marriage but then, many look at the pay and just go for it anyways.
In such a case, having family relatives around is a good idea to help the wife overcome the stress that comes with giving birth and breastfeeding. Making sure to be readily available whenever you're on break or off work is also another thing.
I do not think fathers need paternity leave to be able to do their quarter for the new born baby. There is an increase in the responsibilities for the father, he needs to keep working for the money to keep coming. Taking a paternity leave also means an unpaid time off, what would happen if there wasn't much savings for the family?
There is much to do especially for the baby, both parents have to double their strength. The father can still help the mother out at night, I've seen that babies require a lot of attention at night too. Fathers can bond and be there for their family without the compulsory paternity leave, the leave for mothers is enough. Well, that's my thought... A father that wants to be the best for his new family will be, with or without paternity leave.
Images are AI generated
