How do you feel about men in childcare?

Question

i am currently studying HNC Early Education And Childcare, how does anyone feel about men caring and looking after young kids? Men and Women should have equal roles in bringing up kids, do you agree?

Surely men must have equal rights in childcare as well as women? Men and Women have equally got to be there for children!

Answer 1

I agree wholeheartedly.

Answer 2

I believe in the "traditional" roles of men and women - so what I am about to say probably sounds like a contradiction - but we live in a very "mixed" society - with families made up of different elements - single parent families etc -
So I think men going into childcare is a fabulous idea because children need to see men and women as equals - most single parent families are made up of mum and kids - so they need to see men in a positive light - and the earlier you can do this the better!!
Good luck - and thank you - I think youre very brave - because a lot of men are afraid to work with young children - read some of the other answers - you know what I mean!!

I Must add - in answer to some of the responses you have already had - in many cases when children have been abused it has been with the active collusion of the mother of the child or some other female.

Answer 3

Well folks, I am doing my Level 3 in Early Years Education and I'm a Trainee Male Nursery Nurse / Early Year's Educator for the Under 5's and i really love my training and i hope to pass my qualification later this year or very early next year as both children need both male and female carers looking after them...as last year i was doing my Level 2 in Childcare and i was at a lovely day nursery with wonderful children and the female staff liked me there and also they stated that i was interacting wonderfully with the children and most of the children especially the female toddlers between 2 and 3 years old totally adored me caring for them even having secure secondary attachment bonds with me or separation anxiety sometimes e.g didn't want to leave my side or cried because i left them :(.....but childcare is a very rewarding career but i know it doesn't really pay well....but who cares about that.....as long as the children enjoy having me care for them and i like caring for them i will keep caring for children :)

Answer 4

Gender roles in American Society especially have changed over the last 4 decades. For example, I did extremely well (ok got really lucky) during the 90's dot com boom. We banked enough money that my wife and I would not have to work if we did not want to.

I went back to college, got my PhD and teach. She became a speech therapist because she enjoys the work. I work for 3 colleges that participate in distance education degrees and can teach my classes at home. I have several other projects I do from home as well. The most important job I have is raising my 1 year old son.

Anyone who says a man is not as capable, skilled or loving as a woman when it comes to child rearing is nothing more than an idiot. Anyone who would be so arrogantly sexist as to not enroll a child in a daycare because of a male provider is stifling their child and should take a look at their own inadequacies.

Answer 5

Actually i like the idea that know more men are a t these centers i think having a man benefits in every way kids like having the men around its good to have the children look at the teachers as role models and to have a man and women is even better.

Answer 6

A male childcare provider may be the only male role model some of those poor kids may ever know. I think it's a great idea. Men have for some reason been stereotyped as being "weird" or "perverts" if they express an interest in childcare. Kudos for you in wanting to even the odds!!

Answer 7

The more the better. I'm sick of snobby judgemental bitchy women working in kids places all the time.
They don't have the authority that men do. My daughter is a strong personality and responds so much better to a man.
Children are much more rounded individuals when they've been cared for and taught by men and women. Who made early education and childcare womens jobs anyway?

Answer 8

I have been a single Dad for 10 years. A parents sex doesn't determine their ability to be a parent, their ambition for the welfare of their child should be (but isn't) the deciding factor. I have no more ability than any other parent, male or female other than the experience I now have. Experience none of us had at our child's birth. The sex of a parent has no bearing on it's ability to raise a child, simply the capacity to give birth to one. And with the greatest respect to women in general, having the ability to give birth is not a recipe for being a Mother, any more than having the ability to father a child gives a man the right to call himself 'Dad'. We both have the capacity to be bad at it, and therefore both as good at the job when the need or opportunity allows or dictates. The only thing that prevents both parents having an equal role is that both parents do not in law have equal rights. Fathers are way down the list of potential carers for their own children even when it is an established fact that the Mother is abusing the child (It happens more often than you would like to think... or what do you suppose they actually keep in a women's prison's ?) and the Father is acting like a 'Father' and is trying to protect it.

Answer 9

I absolutely agree that men and women should be allowed equal access / rights to being involved in the care of young children. Personally, I don't see any reason why that shouldn't be the way it is!

Answer 10

Good for you, my partners been watching our two kids for the last couple of years while I've been at college. He's done all the playgroup duty, school trips, ballet, swimming lessons etc. He's usually the only dad participating in any of these activities but hell why shouldn't he? their his kids too! Everyones been really supportive of him, especially all the mums at playgroup where he has almost always been the only dad, in fact I think most of them went home and went on at there husbands/partners to start doing more with there kids.
By the way my youngest daughters nursery teacher is a man, in fact he runs the nursery.
Again good for you, why should childcare be labelled womans work?

Answer 11

I wish more men would do childcare. I am a single mother of four. My kids have no contact with their father. So it would be great for them to have some male role models. Even more so for my two boys. I can see they long for that male bonding in their lives. I know my 4 yr old son clings to any man he meets.
So I think it would be great to get some nice men in the child care/ and teaching ... careers.