Just a few weeks back I was reading a rather interesting article in a local magazine. It spoke about a subject that till recently was not such an acceptable social trend in our society, but things surely seems to have changed with the turn of the century. The article was about "stay -at-home dads".
Let me give a bit of insight into the concept. It's about men who are not at work everyday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and their tribe seem to be growing in number as well as popularity. According to British Government statistics, 20,000 men in the UK embrace househusbandhood.
Amazing!
Well one can check out either www(.)rebeldad(.)com or www(.)slowlane(.)com for further details. Reading this piece, my reaction was perhaps a bit different than others.
"Oh wow! Is this official now?" I uttered to myself.
I had once during my career associated with a high profile interior designer. While she used to be very busy meeting people & making presentations around the globe, the man of the household used to stay perched at home most of the time except when he was taking the children out for riding or private classes. We used to secretly refer to him as Mr. Househusband.
In the early nineties a househusband was not a very common sighting in urban India-not even in New Delhi. So quite justifiably all those "hiss hiss & huss huss" kept our rumor mill grinding. As time passed, we realised that to be an urban househusband one has to have zillions of money, decent enough to sustain a golf lifestyle. Financed out of wife's purse is definitely not easy to come not unless you happen to belong to one of the few places like in the northeast India where you might be lucky! Women there traditionally works hard to earn the bread for the family, she also earns the wine for her husband while the husbands eat, drink, gamble and make merry!
It is True, there are instances of one partner (read husband) opting out of work as the other had more growth opportunity. It must be difficult being a househusband as compared to his female counterpart when one considers the aspects of parenting, the social pressures (like answering questions like what do you do for a living etc.)
I wouldn't be too worried about the husbands of the like of Mrs Margaret Thatcher or HM the Queen but will be curious to know if some one as successful as the head of Pepsi Co would be comfortable with a househusband who keeps himself busy with charity organisations and social commitments? Probably, anyone might hazard a guess!
However un-masculine it might sound, Yours truly has had waited for such an offer-which never came through...
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