LOPSIDEDNESS IN ACKNOWLEDGING PARENTHOOD

The other day a very funny but rather contemplating issue got my attention. I was at a council meeting in church and as part of a group learning, we were divided into groups, given a story and were asked to discuss it. The story had a central character i.e. the character of the mother and she was shown as a sacrificing mother who was ready to go to any lengths to keep her children happy. The concept of motherhood from ancient times has been given a lot of importance. So, even we sat and discussed about the numerous pains a mother takes in bringing up her child. But suddenly, out of the crowd, we heard the shouting of a man who got very upset with the story. His principle worry was not that the story appreciated the mother but what his actual concern was that why always only mothers are given this honour. Why never there is any story or any media product that portrays the father as a sacrificing parent? He defended himself by saying that even fathers love their children unconditionally, they go out, work hard, and earn money only for their children. The difference is just that they don’t express their love as the mothers. But does that make them less important? After listening to all this, I was stunned. This was so simple but never before had I thought about this categorization of mothers and fathers. The uncle was actually right. If both parents work hard to make their children’s future bright, then why always the mother is given the credit. Both of them deserve equal appraisal. A large part of this behavior is reinforced by the media specially, movies. We tend to reflect all the ideas of the celluloid in our real lives. Thus, this is the time to sit back and analyze the effects of different media channels on our lives. Why should the fathers stay behind in this race?