I feel less stressed out now that one of my assignments is finished (it isn't very good, but I got it in). I'm also really fucking frustrated right now and thus I am going to rant.
I came across this video while scrolling around on YouTube. In it, a father is holding his daughter in one hand, a beer in the other hand, and is trying to catch a baseball. In doing so, he nearly drops his daughter. When I went into the comment section expecting to see a bunch of people pointing out how irresponsible this is, but instead 99% of the comments were praising.
This pisses me off so much because it highlights how fathers, and men in general, are held to such a low standard that they end up being praised for the bare minimum. It's to the point where I've even seen men openly admit to it being insulting, especially fathers. Just the fact that he didn't drop his kid is enough for everyone to praise him for his "multitasking skills", joking about the situation and some even going as far as to see him as a good father. It's disgusting. Meanwhile, you can find a shit ton of comments hating on this mother for how she handled her daughter (it seems to be around maybe 3 years old) hitting her baby brother. In the clip, she doesn't react by screaming or freaking out, instead making sure to keep calm in order to not frighten and stress out the baby. Many in the comment section also mentioned that she disciplined her off-screen and pointed out reacted to the situation correctly. Despite this, she is getting shit on by many users who view her as being a horrible parent because of this incident. It's wild to compare the contrast between people getting pissed off at a mother despite seemingly handling the situation correctly vs a father who willingly endangered his daughter because he prioritizes his beer and baseballs over safety.
I should note that this isn't me praising the mother, rather it's me using an example to point out a clear double standard there seems to be.
I feel like parents aren't really held to a super high standard. There have been too many instances of me seeing parents being praised for doing what should be considered the bare minimum and a lot of people are quick to defend parents when it comes to them mistreating their children. You can hit a kid and it's fine but if you hit an adult it's assault. However, mothers are held to a much higher standard than fathers, so you constantly see fathers doing below the bare minimum when it comes to raising their kids yet getting all sorts of praise from others. If a father brings their kid to school while their kid is still in their pajamas and their hair is all messy, it's cute. A mother does the same, it's neglect.
This also reflects how wider society views children. We like to pretend as though we care about keeping them safe and ensuring that they grow up to be good adults, but we don't. When we see a parent being irresponsible and putting their child's life in danger, we laugh it off so long as it's framed in a funny way. Meanwhile, we become hyper-fixated on punishing children for all of their wrong-doings, usually prioritizing physical punishments over time-outs and positive reinforcement. It's like people only care about children under the context of them being cute. The minute that they start to act a certain that isn't perceived as cute is the minute that we don't care about their well-being anymore, instead responding with aggression towards them.
Anyway, I hope that the father has his kid taken away from him. Dumbasses like that shouldn't be allowed around children.
