So what would you do?

The strive for female equality is (or has been) usually just that, but more and more often these days, I see examples of women wanting equality, only when it suits. A good example of this would be the one I rant about quite often, the mythical wage gap and the desire to see more women in boardrooms, but not construction, sewers etc

So how does it apply when having a baby? (And for the purposes of this post, I'm only referring to couples, a mother and a father, having a baby. It's unfortunate that needs to be said these days)

A father-to-be has sparked a debate about parenting duties, after revealing that he asked his wife to care for their newborn at night, during her maternity leave.

In a recent post shared to the Reddit community, “Am I the A**hole,” @u/rayzrisme noted how he asked his wife to“take care of [their] newborn during the night hours while she is on maternity leave.” He explained how she got 16 weeks of paid leave from her job, as he’s still working.

 “I only asked her that during that 16 week time period that she take care of the baby during the midnight hours while I sleep, since I have to wake [up] for work [Monday through Friday],” he wrote.
The husband said that whenever he’s off from work, he will take on more responsibilities as a father.
“I told her that after I get off work, I will take over entirely,” the post continued. “Do all chores, cook, take care of the baby. Even more so on weekends where I have no issue staying up late, waking up early, or multiple times in the night, [so she can] catch up on all of her needed rest.”
He expressed how on “some nights, even if [he’s] working, [he] will stay up with the baby.” But, his wife wasn’t fond of his proposition.

I get the impression this must be an American couple if she only got 16 weeks maternity. I believe you get almost a year in England now

Anyway, on the surface, that seems like a reasonable request to me. Wife is at home while husband is still working, husband chips in when he's at home. what's not to like?

But then:

“What exactly is she doing during the day while you’re at work? Daydreaming? Looking after a newborn during the day, alone, is stressful,” a Reddit user wrote. “Man up and help out at night.”

Many mothers reckon that looking after a baby is a full time job. At least I read that a lot, but it's usually from benefit scroungers who believe they should be paid a wage from the taxpayer for doing that 'full time job' 

Do I believe you should be paid by the state to look after your own baby? Do I bollocks

Do I believe looking after a baby is a full time job? No

But it's obviously time consuming, tiring and stressful, so it's not like she's sat on her arse watching Jeremy Kyle all day, while he's out at work

But it's probably a bigger picture, as childcare requirements will likely differ from couple to couple. My question is, is she planning to milk her employer for 16 weeks of maternity pay and then quit her job to look after the child? I've seen it so many times in my life. A colleague is on paid leave for months on end, then quits when maternity is up

If she does that when the baby has grown a bit, he'll still be going to work supporting the three of them, while she's spends all day out having coffees and muffins while chewing the fat with her mother friends

I have a good friend who used to be very annoyed about that. His Mrs is back at work now, but it took a few years to wean her off the easy life of a Starbucks socialite 

“If you’re taking over everything in the evening and planning to split nights evenly once she’s back to work, that’s a reasonable ask,” a comment reads. “It’s what my husband and I did and it worked well for us. That said, some nights with a newborn are really difficult and if she needs your help, even just emotional support, you better be doing it without any fuss.”

Different solutions will work for different people, so you can't judge from one social media post, but I actually have the ultimate solution to this problem

Don't have kids

It worked so well for me and Mrs Bucko, I'm frankly astounded that people still choose to have them

*Baffle*