Taking Paternity Leave Makes You a Hipster?

By Stefan-Xp (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html), CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/) or Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

This morning, as I was driving to work, a radio deejay mentioned that it seemed like all of his coworkers were on vacation and he never took vacation. Then he said something like, “That’s okay. I’m saving all my vacation for paternity leave." And this as though realizing he'd said too much, he added, "That probably makes me a hipster.” Seriously? Why was this man embarrassed to admit that he was taking paternity leave? Only hipsters can admit to having a caring side?

My mind immediately turned to a situation from last week when golfer Hunter Mahan withdrew from a tournament he was leading because his wife went into labor with their first child. Oh, and did I mention she went into labor a month early, turning a stressful situation into an even more stressful situation? And, oh, I forgot to say she was in another state.

But apparently, despite all these facts, it was big, shocking, unbelievable news that Mahan withdrew from the tournament even though he was looking at a big payday. There were news articles and radio and TV segments devoted to his decision.

Ooh, just thinking about both these situations makes me mad.

Why are men questioned for wanting to be there for their wives who have carried their child for nine months and is now going through painful, scary process of giving birth to this child? Why do some men feel the need to apologize for wanting to be there?

The wife didn’t get pregnant on her own.

It doesn’t make the husband less of a man for wanting to be there for the birth of his child. It doesn’t make the husband less of a man for wanting to take care of the person he helped create.

Real men take care of their responsibilities. Real men embrace taking care of their responsibilities.

What year is this again?