“Why do we need parenting content from a dad’s perspective?”

From time immemorial, parenting and “taking care” of the family was always considered a mother’s domain. But in today’s day and age it would be foolish to consider this as the final truth. At least for citizens dwelling in big cities, where cost of living scales taller than some of the skyscrapers that dons these cities’ skyline.

My name is Nadir Kanthawala and I am a 40 year old man with an 8 year old daughter. When I was well into my 20s, quite a few of my school friends were getting married and even having children. I spent a lot of time around them to realise that even I wanted to have kids (yes I wanted more than one). And to think that just some years ago we were kids ourselves, doing silly, dumb things and getting thrashed by our parents (metaphorically speaking). Seeing my friends becoming parents was one of the most surreal transitions of my life. Who would have imagined that one day we would be parents and have our very own children.

My wife and I were clear from the start that we always wanted child(ren) and this cemented our understanding of being in a long term relationship, out of the many other things why we are together. Our parenting approach too was super focused, both of us have to be in it EQUALLY, parenting would not become either mine or hers. As a dad I was resolute that I would always play an important and central role in my daughter’s upbringing. All my learnings and lived experience will go to her in order for her to become a better human being.

And this is the simple idea of this platform. I want to tell my parenting story from a dad’s perspective. Here is a thought experiment, just do a standard Google search of “parenting influencers india” you will notice that out of the first 20 odd names, only one of them is a father, the rest are all moms. This just goes to show that we are FAR away from understanding parenting from a dad’s perspective. Sad to say but most of the time we hear of a dad’s perspective is when he is reduced to a meme or a joke on social media.

No longer are we ok to hang on to the narrative that everything related to parenting is connected only to the mother, it is not fair and it is not a duty that should be shouldered by just her. Research shows that fathers’ active involvement in childcare has a positive impact on the child’s cognitive, physical, social and emotional development. For level-headed and well-rounded adults of tomorrow, today’s children need to get equal attention from both parents.

The world of parenting is not something to be left solely on mothers, and with changing times the dads have to play their part too. And there are many dads out there who are doing their best “without being told what to do” because for them it comes from within, they want to be part of their child’s journey and they want to make an impact.

Through this website I plan on writing multiple articles on relevant topics related primarily about parenting through the years and parenting today, especailly those topics that are trending in popular media. But apart from that I also will be doing a commentary on relationships, marriage & partners. 

I will be publishing weekly content, hope you enjoy it.

So back to our initial question:

Why do we need parenting content from a dad’s perspective?

Because it is imperative that we share, care and bear together as the child has to hold both parents’ hands together and walk into the future.