Iku-men.

Japan. Sweden. India. More and more countries are recognizing at a governmental and corporate level the importance of fathers being involved in their children's upbringing.

above photograph: me and my dad, 1978

Neat little piece from several months ago on Reuters. (excerpt below)

:::

A relatively new, and so far small, group of prominent stay-home dads who put their career on hold to look after their children have been making headlines.

Japan’s so-called “Iku-men” – a play on the Japanese word for child-rearing, “iku-ji” – include the mayor of Tokyo’s Bunkyo ward...

:::

I have a small business and I have a small family.

Frequently, the lines between the two are non-existent.

Sometimes, my children need to come with me to class when I'm teaching, or accompany me on work-related outings. I smile, and do not apologize. 

My dad used to take me with him to dental school classes. I was two. Thanks Dad. Good example. I will try to be a good one too.

——

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Becca and I split parenting and work. One works, the other schools, plays, and raises young minds and hearts. Then we switch the next day. We have done a variation of this for over eleven years and going strong.

Strong-ish?

I am not avoiding the phrase SAHD (stay at home dad) for any particular reason, other than the fact that it doesn't quite apply in our case accurately. We both raise children, we both work, we both stay home at some points and work at other points. It's great when there's one parent to work five days and one parent to stay home five days or whatever, but that's not us. We keep things hopping and make things work. Most of the time, mostly well.

JosephLong1978, Chief, Joseph Ivan Long, dads, work, gender and identity1 Comment