I’m glad I didn’t marry one of these immature suckers:
Jennifer Lundquist and Joya Misra of UMass, along with KerryAnn O’Meara of Maryland, found that relatively few male faculty members with children took paid parental leave (72 percent of reported leave-takers were women, while 82 percent of all non-leave-takers were men). Those who did take it said they needed to because their spouses were not full-time homemakers. Some fathers whose partners were back at work full time did still not take leave, fearing negative professional repercussions, such as delayed promotions.
I have a man right here who would slaughter for a chance to take care of his newborn baby, even if the leave were unpaid, but who simply isn’t given that opportunity, and these fuckers squander a chance of a lifetime, a chance so many people are dying to have.
I especially liked the following phrase:
Those who did take it said they needed to because their spouses were not full-time homemakers.
If you see your own child as an uinwelcome chore that has to be done when nobody else can do it for you, then why have children at all? The planet is overpopulated as it is. If you don’t like being with a child, feeding, playing, putting the kid to sleep, reading stories and singing songs, etc., then why, on God’s green Earth, do you not just put on a frakking condom and spare us all the aggravation of having among us yet another functionally fatherless kid? There are enough of those running around as it is.
Women who decide to give birth to children of such low-quality males puzzle me. We all know how often I insist on the importance of a father in a child’s life but, still, it’s a lot preferable just to use a sperm bank than to keep around a loser who cares less about his own baby than about a promotion not being delayed for a semester. It is much better for a kid to experience one instance of rejection by a father than to witness daily rejections from an absent and disinterested one.
The rest of the article is utter crap because it places the fault for this egregious immaturity and utter idiocy not on the actual immature idiots but on society, stigma, and STEM fields.
P.S. Every male academic I happen to know is a phenomenal father, by the way, so there is a chance this study is a fake. I don’t even think I know any men who somehow manage not to see their own children as the priority in their lives.
Clarissa's Blog 
sucking on the teat of the system?
LikeLike
Of their wives, rather. They want their adult partners to mommy them perpetually.
LikeLike
That is apparently quite common. Even the norm (although I would not say normal).
LikeLike
This paid leave is 6 weeks at most. With another adult at home and a permanently sleeping infant, they could actually use the time to publish something. Yet the terror of not getting to be the family’s baby any more is too strong.
LikeLike
My brother got 12 weeks. First his wife took her 12, then he took his. Those were good pre-Katrina jobs, of course.
LikeLike
Were all 12 weeks paid? We also have 12 weeks but half is unpaid.
You have a very normal brother but I’m not surprised, knowing you. 🙂
LikeLike
I had thought they were paid but perhaps not.
We are rebelling against our parents who are certifiably insane.
LikeLike
It is upto the individual to decide whether or not he should take parental leave
LikeLike
And it is also up to the individual to decide what opinion to hold of the people who make those decisions.
LikeLike
Perhaps their wives should have discussed about this before becoming pregnant
LikeLike
You are confusing the role of a mother and a wife. This is precisely the issue I’m addressing.
LikeLike
We had this discussion before.Female mammals are more likely to spend time with young ones
LikeLike
“We had this discussion before.Female mammals are more likely to spend time with young ones”
– This is not a discussion. This is a completely idiotic statement. Tell me, how likely are any mammals to have careers, use computers, brush their teeth, start businesses, have credit cards and go grocery shopping? Concentrate for a moment and try to list all the behaviors that human beings engage in that mammals don’t. Even the most natural, animalistic behaviors – such as, say, peeing – are not conducted in the form that animals do them. Or do you urinate and defecate in the middle of the street whenever you feel the need instead of looking for a bathroom? Maybe you also hunt for your food and eat it raw, clawing at it with your talons?
Jeez, the intellectual level of some people is too hopeless.
LikeLike
I guess authoratarian strain runs deep in you
LikeLike
You are getting confused. Authoritarianism is opposed to people expressing their opinions. Like you are.
LikeLike
“a permanently sleeping infant” – er not really. Having had two, I can assure you that early babyhood is about parental exhaustion what with night feeds, colic, teething, crying and so on. Rest? No chance.
My first rest in two and a half months was when I went back to work and put my baby in the creche. My ex-h was a student surgeon and there was no way he could take parental leave as they were short-staffed as it was.
Anyway some men prefer their kids when they get older and can communicate, run about with a ball and so on. That’s when they come into their own as dads.
Not everyone is the same.
LikeLike
“Having had two, I can assure you that early babyhood is about parental exhaustion what with night feeds, colic, teething, crying and so on. Rest? No chance.”
– My sister’s baby slept through the first 4 months and then started to wake up. She said she’d never been this bored in her life. And teething in the first 6 weeks?? That’s one weird baby.
“Anyway some men prefer their kids when they get older and can communicate, run about with a ball and so on. That’s when they come into their own as dads.”
– How incredibly convenient. Why not just prefer them once they start making money and can help out financially? I can imagine what would the reaction be to a woman who says, “I don’t care about my infant. I prefer her when she is older and in the meanwhile she can just go stuff herself.”
LikeLike
I agree so much! In my field I only know of one single man who has taken parental leave, and I know many men with young children. Those with tenure or on the tenure-track are so fixated on their career, addicted to their work, and so convinced of their own importance, that I am sure the thought does not even enter their mind. Four months without their work is unimaginable for them. Those who are still post-docs on the other hand are just so extremely scared of failing that they will not dare to take it either.
It would be so great if men would start to take parental leave, because if that became normal it would make it a lot easier for women to do the same thing. Now it is still something that damages a CV because people are totally not used to the idea that somebody is devoted to their work, successful AND takes parental leave. I almost think one should force anybody who has a child to take parental leave…. after a few years it would become normal.
LikeLike
Such people are robbing themselves of something wonderful and producing little neurotics we all have to tolerate.
LikeLike
When they do takes leaves, they continue to write, thus making their promotion delayed but more inevitable. Not in all cases though. One I knew took such a leave but then still couldn’t publish enough to stay. I took an unpaid leave between jobs for help care for infant. I wrote very little that year (but not because of that). Of course, I was already tenured. I didn’t get any appreciation from the mother of my child, interestingly. That wasn’t my purpose, but still, it might have been nice.
LikeLike
And now you have a great relationship with your daughter. What is more valuable than that?
There should be more men like you and more women who can appreciate it!
LikeLike