If you had a time machine in your home and could go back and take a peek at life before you were here, would you find yourself surprised at what you found? Would it look drastically different than life today or would people be relatively similar? Now, obviously, technology has changed life but what about people? I would suggest that, while people really haven’t changed much, the lives that they live would look drastically different.
Take your time machine back to the 40’s or 50’s. The concepts of family and home would probably look significantly different than it does currently.
Bruce Feiler states that “the institutions of the family has undergone dramatic changes in recent decades. From the decline of marriage to the rise of divorce, from the surge of women into the workplace to the novelty of men being more involved in raising children, every aspect of domestic life has been transformed.”
The family looks a lot different these days that it did back then. Now, I’m not making a statement about whether that is better or worse. It simply is what it is. Not as many people are choosing to get married (though it still happens from time to time) in today’s society. While this goes against my religious beliefs, I can understand why. Many men have trouble embracing the roles that are put in front of them as husband and father which causes women to choose to do this on their own.
Or, in many cases, there is no choice to be made. It simply has to be done. You cannot make a person be a good parent. They have to choose it themselves. For the nuclear family that is becoming more and more rare, your roles might not look the same as everyone else’s.
Many men stay home with the kids now while the moms are at work. Conservatives can blame this on feminism if they want. However, in many cases, the woman in the relationship might actually be more qualified to work due to a more solid education. This is okay. Our roles as parents are not necessarily dictated by our employment.
Here’s what matters. Parents must be engaged. This is where my passion kicks in and this statement is to the fathers out there (ladies, feel free to pull your men over to the screen and have them read this). Your children are depending on you to engage in their lives. Whether you and your spouse are currently married or are divorced, you must be engaged. Whether you are working our your wife is the bread-winner, you must be engaged.
For all the changes that have taken place in the last half-century or so, this one thing definitely has not. Men, God has a role for you to play in the life of your child. Embrace that responsibility fully. It is the most important thing you will ever do.
Life is Strange. Live it Well.
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