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Couples fare better when dads do playtime, not caregiving

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  • Couples fare better when dads do playtime, not caregiving

    Interesting....




    Couples fare better when dads do playtime, not caregiving

    Fathers, put down that feeding spoon and pick up that football.



    New research suggests moms and dads get along better — at least in certain situations — when fathers back off caregiving duties, such as feeding and bathing, and put more effort into playtime.



    Researchers at Ohio State University looked at 112 middle-class couples with four-year-old children. Researchers looked at how involved fathers were in play activities and how much they took part in caregiving.



    They also observed parents working together to help their children perform certain tasks, such as building toy structures or drawing pictures. Families in which fathers were more involved in play activities had more of what researchers called supportive interaction between the two parents.



    In contrast, more undermining behaviour was seen among families in which fathers do more of the caregiving.



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    Discuss!
    Last edited by blinkandimgone; 01-30-2011, 11:05 PM. Reason: the voices told me to...

  • #2
    The article has the same problem I have with most news articles about "the latest study". The Journalist loads the article with conclusions and assertions that are just speculation and aren't supported by the research.

    In this case, the parents get along better when they split roles instead of share them. When they share, each parent has their own ideas and they tend to disagree. When they split roles, they accept each other's judgements and value each other's contributions. It would be the same if one cooked and the other did the dishes after; if both were cooking it takes an exceptional couple to team up and not disagree over how much salt to use.

    The title is completely loaded. How do the couples fare if the father does the caregiving and the mother does the playtime? The researchers didn't go there. Gender bias was built into the methodology, and the journalist plays up the results even futher.

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    • #3
      Given my own circumstances, I disagree with the entire article, or I guess the study results.

      My ex was great for playing with the kids when they were younger but never took much interest in the caregiving side which used to irk me to no end. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed watching dad play with the kids and the three of them interact but I really could have used the support.

      When the kids got a bit bigger and the novelty wore off he no longer played with them nor did he step up on the caregiving, at that point he was just paying the bills. The kids and I lived in a constant state of frustration and disappointment. When I realized I could pay the bills myself and everything else was non-existant no matter how hard I tried, it was time to move on.

      I hoped he'd take more interest in the kids once we split but that hasn't really happened at all. The saddest day for me after our relationship ended was the day I realized mine and the children's lives didn't change when he left.

      As the wife/caregiver, I would really have loved the support and think our relationship would have survived if we'd shared the roles between us.

      I would have liked to see some other results from the study, too.

      Comment

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