This morning I took Lovely to a doctor’s appointment. She had minor surgery about two months ago and today was her first follow up appointment with the surgeon. I was absolutely livid that we were driving twenty miles to see a doctor who should have seen her a week after her surgery. What sense does it make to look at a scar that is healed over? In my mind he should have been more interested in seeing that his cut was healing and not getting infected after the surgery. This was clearly a cover your ass appointment. He could honestly note in his chart that he followed up.
The doctor is young and cocky. My first wife Barbara worked with surgeons and always commented on how cock-sure they were of themselves and how demanding they were with underlings. This guy fit her description of a surgeon. Being upset, I angrily asked him why he took so long to see Lovely after he operated. His answer, “I had a kid.”
“You mean you gave birth to a child?” I replied.
“No, I took paternity leave and was off for six weeks.” “
“Congratulations,” I said.
That was the end of it. I wouldn’t accomplish anything by pushing the point further.
What I am going to say next will probably irritate every woman on the face of the earth. It is my opinion that today’s ladies have evolved into complete pussies. What ever happened to women who gave birth and went back to work the day, or next week or, the woman who gives birth and takes care of her newborn while also caring for their several other children, the house, the wash, the meals, the shopping, the dog? No, they have to have their husband home to help them out for that critical period after birth.
Actually, I don’t think women of today are any different than the women of yesteryear, but their husbands are clearly playing the system and take advantage of the laws that give them the six week vacation after the birth of a child. It doesn’t help when our Secretary of Transportation Mayor Pete Buttigieg disappeared for six weeks to assist his wife-husband to care for their newborn. I can see him needing six weeks off to learn how to care for a baby only because men aren’t programmed to do those kinds of things. Real women have natural instincts on the care of children.
During our child rearing years my wife never missed a beat. In fact, she made sure I didn’t miss a single hour of work on account of the newborn. I never had a middle of the night call to change a diaper or administer a bottle. Her thinking was that my job was too damned important to the security of the family. Yet, today’s ladies are gifted with all of the modernities of a large house filled with every available labor saving device conceived, and still they need help from their hubbies.
It won’t be long before uncle decides it is time to hand over the child to a government paid childcare center for raising. Wasn’t that the theme used in Aldous Huxley’s 1932 book “Brave New World” or Orwell’s “1984”?
Filed under: Aging, family, Satire | Tagged: Paternity Leave |
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