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DiscussionWhat is the ideal family structure?
I've read so much about the myriad ways men fail in parenting and in "providing" that I'm questioning why it's so expected and romanticized that men are to play a vital role in raising children, or "fatherhood."
Because in the end it's almost always the woman who takes on the emotional burden, the hits to their careers, hobbies, relationships with others, not to mention the physical toll during pregnancy and the lifelong effects of giving birth, that many say that being a single mother is often better than staying with the father.
Would a society where mothers are mostly expected to do the childrearing with a strong support network of other women (family and/or friends/neighbors) and the government be ideal? Deer and cats and all manner of other mammals are single mothers just fine. I mean sure, we aren't deer or cats, we are complex human beings with complex feelings, I'm just bringing this up because perhaps expecting to "unsocialize" men from their aversion to parenthood is futile given that, in the end, we are still animals, and there are implications to our common ancestry with other mammals.
I wonder how "romance" in this hypothetical society would work. Would it generally be considered worth living with the father in this sort of society? Or would women live separately and go on outings with the man of their affections for leisure? But that just sounds so... shallow. Am I huffing copium that the "i'll be with you forever!" love you find in escapist stories could be replicable to some degree in the real world? I just find it so hard to believe, because obviously men should have the capacity to always want to love and care for those they love and find fulfillment and joy. But men like that seem so rare.
...Am I becoming a separatist?