Essay On The Myth Of Co Parenting

From the beginning, we grow up with the goal of marriage. We think of marriage as a happy relationship balanced with both parties putting in effort. In reality, this is quite different with imbalance, gender roles, and societal norms being present in marriage. In a modern society, most people want a balanced marriage with the household duties split. The wife doesn't want to be responsible for the household duties, as much as the husband doesn't want to hold all the financial responsibility. There would be more happy marriages throughout the US if it was this way. However, this is how it is with gender and societal norms making it impossible to find full balance in marriage. This raises the question, to what extent do modern gender expectations

With expectations varying based on gender, no two parties will have the same expectation on how the marriage will go. Understanding expectations, self-esteem, and the routes to happiness are key to achieving the desired happiness in marriage. As a result, these gender norms and marriage norms are seen everywhere. We even see them in popular films. These traditional gender roles are prevalent in marriages across the US. In “The Myth of Co Parenting: How It Was Supposed to be and How It Was” author and wife Hope Edelman describes her experiences in this kind of marriage. She puts an emphasis on her idea of co-parenting being unattainable. Edelman repeats words like “hours”, “consumed”, and “imbalance” (Edelman, 24-31). By using these words, Edelman is able to express her concern for her husband prioritizing work over the family, and highlight the traditional gender role of men working and making money for the household and not the wife. It shows the idea of a family, and emphasizes the desire for her husband to help with parenting. The idea of a nice, happy family is what everyone wants (Edelman,

It portrays women needing help to get through life. Hollywood and movies are contributing to the continuing issues of gender roles in marriages. Movies like these keep adding to the ongoing issue. We can see examples of gender roles in life and relationships with Edelman's marriage and Cinderella's relationship with her family and the prince. Overall, as gender roles and societal norms stay as persistent as they are right now, marriages will never be fully balanced, we can dream about it but until a change happens it is impossible. We have to change our expectations by then. Happiness, balance, high self-esteem, and expectations are key to a long, happy marriage. The gender roles in society today are blocking that from being possible. As we saw with Edelman and her marriage, these gender roles have negative effects on marriage and cause displeasure. I then went over Dr. Ucar's study. Her study showed how positive reinforcement leads to longer-lasting marriages. Positivity can take a marriage far. We took a look at the different ways to achieve happiness and how to achieve happiness in marriage with Seligman's idea of a full