Breathe
By Mónica Hernández
Walking around London at any time of the year is a joy. But autumn has a different flavor, a different light and a melancholy that can be enjoyed to the fullest. And there is never a lack of surprises. Walking or sightseeing, in Leicester Square, for example. One can stumble upon a sculpture of Gene Kelly, the greatest dancer of all time (cost of legs, insurance, etc. included), who wears a yellow shawl with a plastic baby at the ribs. His smile reassures the viewer and, perhaps, the emotionless baby.
The engineer Isambard Kingdom (if you are not familiar with him, think of the first railroad lines, steamships, hydraulic bridges...) made of bronze, is sitting on a bench in Paddington station, while on his chest rests a baby wrapped in a kind of shawl. In one hand he holds his top hat and with the other he embraces the plastic doll, hyper-realistic, by the way.
Near the Emirates Stadium, palace of glories and songs of English soccer, a Thierry Henry celebrates on his knees, something that might seem, to the untrained eye, a goal, but on his chest there is another shawl, now red, the color of the heart of Arsenal fans, with another baby tucked against him. So he seems to be celebrating fatherhood.
What is happening in London? Actually, all over England. It's a shift towards fatherhood, called The Dad Shift (not The Dad Shit), and it's nothing more than an activist group's call to make room for fatherhood without undermining motherhood. It's so big that it's taking on the newly inaugurated government of Prime Minister Starmer. Women of the world, weren't we crying out for this?
In general, when we talk about family welfare, it is usually associated with the figure of the mother, because welfare includes care (from bathing, clean clothes, clean bottom, cooing and, of course, feeding). But these are tasks that do not belong exclusively to the mother. And we have no doubt, if men could peek into motherhood, they would run away. Motherhood is the most exhausting process there is, and on top of that, there is no end to it. It is a circle with no corners, no exits, no shortcuts and above all, no exit door.
However, it is known that the father figure is just as necessary for the creation and strengthening of affective bonds, in addition to the biological ones, among human beings. And we are referring to the fact that the general well-being of a human being, from the moment he leaves the mother's womb, requires affection, care and attention that cannot only be provided by the one who carries the food. Mothering is not only breastfeeding and therefore, Fathering is not only putting money in the bank account. The Dad Shift proposes a paternity leave suitable for the 21st century, where women's demand for a more equal distribution (even or uneven, as we already know that justice is based on equity, which is not the same as equality. The Dad Shift proposes equity: that English fathers can perform all the tasks of caring for a newborn (except breastfeeding, for biological and hormonal reasons) for a longer period of time with an adequate percentage of their salary, the worst business in this area in Europe. In England today, two weeks of mandatory paternity leave are granted and paid at 185 pounds per week (about $4,470 Mexican pesos per week). What this group is asking for is 90% of the salary and six weeks of leave, as in neighboring countries (Yes, Denmark too).
In terms of pesos and the current Mexico... all that remains to be done is to think of all that remains to be done. Not in terms of the number of weeks of "mandatory" sick leave (two or six, it is irrelevant), but in the amount to be received during each one of them. I don't know about you, but almost 5,000 for staying home to change diapers... when women do it for free and like other things in life, for the pleasure and satisfaction of the work accomplished, or the obligation satisfied, or out of guilt for "having gotten" pregnant... The other point is that in Mexico 12.5% (INEGI, 2020) of households are single-parent, or something like more than 16 million people where there is only female head, or a lot of mother, for that matter, because either there is no father or he does not contribute money. Less care. The percentage where there is only father does not reach 2% of the national population (for the curious). No, we were not Denmark. But we can still be Mexico where there is more equity. In the end, children are not made alone, they are made between two. By the way, all this comes up because yesterday I stumbled in a shopping mall in Mexico City with a handsome father of more than six feet tall, with a blue shawl around his chest and back, carrying his months-old son asleep as babies sleep, that is to say, unconscious. In one of his free hands he held the leash of the family dog. People looked at him and he posed, proud, "Yes you can!
The opinions expressed are the responsibility of the authors and are absolutely independent of the position and editorial line of the company. Opinion 51.
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