"Thank You For Taking Paternity Leave"
On Friday, September 13th, at 6:51pm, the newest member of the Johnson Family was born: McKay Stephen Johnson. Mikayla and I couldn't be happier. I'll let Mikayla tell the story of the details of the birth in a future post, but today I want to talk about a comment Mikayla has repeatedly made to me today: "Thank you for taking paternity leave."
My thought was, "Yes! Of course I did. Who wouldn't? It just makes sense. I'm the dad! It's as much my responsibility to help out as much as it is Mikayla's responsibility."
But really, that's how everything should be. Everything should be fifty-fifty. Or rather, one-hundred-one-hundred. We should each be giving our all in everything we do to make our relationship and family the best it can be. I don't believe we should have separate roles where it's just my job to do the dishes and Mikayla's job to always make the dinner. If Mikayla's not feeling up for making dinner, I step in, and I say "Let me make sandwiches!" Or something like that. If I'm not feeling doing the dishes, Mikayla happily steps in to help me out. So yes, we have chores that we normally take on for time or convenience (or because we prefer those chores), but we need to be willing to help out wherever a need arises in the relationship.
Back to baby McKay. Yes, there are things I can't do as a man that Mikayla will have to do... but wherever I can, I want to be there for my wife and my children. They invented formula for a reason, for men to step up and feed the baby. I'm perfectly capable of changing a dirty diaper. Playing with Charlie, our oldest son, is one of my favorite things to do.
Some people think that providing or going to work is the man's only responsibility. But, as I mentioned before, it really is one-hundred-one-hundred. If we have expectations for the other person and they don't do that, that's where fights begin. But if we're willing to do anything and everything for our spouse, and they're willing to do the same for us, no one has any room to be mad at one another. It's our chores. They're our children. This is our family. This is our life together.
-Kevin
My thought was, "Yes! Of course I did. Who wouldn't? It just makes sense. I'm the dad! It's as much my responsibility to help out as much as it is Mikayla's responsibility."
But really, that's how everything should be. Everything should be fifty-fifty. Or rather, one-hundred-one-hundred. We should each be giving our all in everything we do to make our relationship and family the best it can be. I don't believe we should have separate roles where it's just my job to do the dishes and Mikayla's job to always make the dinner. If Mikayla's not feeling up for making dinner, I step in, and I say "Let me make sandwiches!" Or something like that. If I'm not feeling doing the dishes, Mikayla happily steps in to help me out. So yes, we have chores that we normally take on for time or convenience (or because we prefer those chores), but we need to be willing to help out wherever a need arises in the relationship.
Back to baby McKay. Yes, there are things I can't do as a man that Mikayla will have to do... but wherever I can, I want to be there for my wife and my children. They invented formula for a reason, for men to step up and feed the baby. I'm perfectly capable of changing a dirty diaper. Playing with Charlie, our oldest son, is one of my favorite things to do.
Some people think that providing or going to work is the man's only responsibility. But, as I mentioned before, it really is one-hundred-one-hundred. If we have expectations for the other person and they don't do that, that's where fights begin. But if we're willing to do anything and everything for our spouse, and they're willing to do the same for us, no one has any room to be mad at one another. It's our chores. They're our children. This is our family. This is our life together.
-Kevin
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