A dad has been left heartbroken after seeing how the world reacts to him raising his four daughters as a single parent, as he urges people to normalise men bringing up their children single-handed
A single dad has issued a heartfelt message after seeing how strangers react to him when he is spending time with his daughters. He shared the challenges he faces on a daily basis raising his four daughters despite now having a new girlfriend in his life.
He said on Reddit: “I’m a single dad of four girls. I have a girlfriend who just moved in with me, but for the vast majority of the past four years it’s just been me and my girls. And it seems like I run into roadblocks at every turn. I’ve had to change my babies on countless men’s restroom floors because there was no changing table.
“I’ve gotten so many dirty looks for taking my kids into the men’s room, but I can’t go into the women’s room and I can’t leave them alone so what am I supposed to do?”
He says strangers approach his girls to ask them “where’s your mum” when they’re standing just feet away from him, believing they’re lost.
He said: “When I travel with my kids we often get questioned like I’m kidnapping them.
“Well meaning old people ask if it’s ‘mum’s day off’ all the time, which isn’t great for my kids to constantly be answering because their mum is dead.
“My kids have had to skip so many ‘mummy daughter’ things because I offer to take them but they’re embarrassed to be the only one with their dad there instead so we don’t go.
“I know the world is tough on mums and I hate that – mums deserve all the credit and conveniences they get and more.
“But it’s frustrating that I get praised for ‘babysitting’ (dads aren’t babysitters) yet I run into so many obstacles trying to do the smallest things.”
Fed up, he has started pleading with people to install changing tables in men’s restrooms while generally normalising dads parenting their children without mums around.
He added: “Why can’t we put changing tables in men’s rooms? Normalise men being with their kids without mum present?
“Make parent/child things parent/child things because there are so many different types of families?
“And why can’t dads as a whole step up to the plate as full fledged parents so these things don’t happen?
“We’re fine, we’ll live, but it just sucks to constantly be reminded that kids ‘need’ a mum and I’m not one.”
Commenting on his post, one user said: “I grew up mostly without my mum and I wouldn’t worry about the long-term effects of everything you’ve written here. S**t like this helped me realise at a young age that most people are ignorant to anything outside of their own experience.”
Another user added: “I think it’s the mentality of ‘women’s work’. Whenever I interview for a job, I’m asked about my children and if I plan to have more.
“I’ve never heard of this happening to men. It’s an outdated mentality that hurts everyone involved.”
