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The art of parenting

10 Comments

Takashi Tayama, 35, right, and Yuji Inoue, 42, left, take part in a "ikumen" course, or child-rearing course for men, organized by Osaka-based company Ikumen University, in Tokyo. The all-male course teaches men how to bathe and dress a baby and also helps them understand a woman's perspective on child-rearing, says Ikumen University. "I wanted to create a form of certification proving a man's child-rearing skills and support for married life," course instructor Takeshi Akiyama told Reuters. "Matchmaking agencies can advertise such men as having 'extra value,' by letting potential partners know he will support the marriage."

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Please offer this service to a lot of people!

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Yikes better late than never I suppose! Before I was 10yrs old I used to help feed my little sister, change her diapers, watch her in the bath, by my early teens I was babysitting as many as 3kids of various ages while parents went to see a movie or something.

Plus I had other chores to do inside & outside the house. Many where I grew up did the same, both boys & girls didn't make a difference

1 ( +1 / -0 )

huh, aren't these services already available/mandatory during the real pregnancy anyway?

Simple answer, no.

I beg to differ... There may be some women who have absolutely NO "instinct" but generally speaking, since even animals know how to take care of their young without any kind of "instructions",

I refuse to equate a human with an animal.

it also seems to come "naturally" to most of us...

Hmmm....no one ever gave you advice? You attended no classes, everything you've done giving birth to a child and raising them has come naturally to you?

I applaud you, seriously, I applaud you, as you are truly one in a million.

As noted by other posters, and the same for me, I had to attend classes with my wife if we wanted to have our baby at the hospital we chose. I actually went through those classes 3 different times, once for each child, and the classes actually got progressively longer in number of times required to attend. I was grateful for the experience.

I disagree with the "instinct" you referred to, some, most, may have some "instinct", some maybe a lot, however there is plenty that needs to be learned.

I would seriously worry about a woman who tells me she can give birth, nurture and care for a baby, based only upon her instincts. That alone would tell me she doesnt know.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

I would have to agree with Yubaru as these courses are offered as mandatory in hospitals and I had to attend all four of mine with my wife as it was part of the agreement to give birth in the hospital. Even though it wasn’t mandatory for the fathers to go there were a lot of fathers at each of the courses when I went.

I read the whole of the article and was all for it until the last sentence about potential fathers taking the course just to put of their dating resume. What ever happened to going on a date and seeing if that click or not? Now do we needed to hand over rusumes to our dates to see if we tick everything off?

3 ( +3 / -0 )

@Yubaru

I beg to differ... There may be some women who have absolutely NO "instinct" but generally speaking, since even animals know how to take care of their young without any kind of "instructions", it also seems to come "naturally" to most of us... Slightly more complicated for the men though since they don't go through all the changes, both physical and mental, that a "future mother" goes during the "nine-month wait" for the baby to "arrive".

1 ( +2 / -1 )

It is harder to get a driver's license than it is to have a baby. In either case, no one knows what he or she is doing without being taught the skills needed to navigate the roads or care for an infant. Just as learning to drive is best left to experienced professionals, it's nice to see parenting skills being taught by someone other than a grandmother or grandmother-in-law. Men and women parent and respond to infants differently. This needs to be understood by parents and grandparents when raising a child properly. Bravo to the program for helping men to feel at ease with their children and share parenting with their wives.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

huh, aren't these services already available/mandatory during the real pregnancy anyway?

If you read the article, you will see it is for men that want to get some kind of certificate ahead of time, to show that they are serious about marriage.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

huh, aren't these services already available/mandatory during the real pregnancy anyway?

2 ( +4 / -2 )

“I wanted to create a form of certification proving a man’s child-rearing skills and support for married life,” course instructor Takeshi Akiyama told Reuters. “

Great idea! Seems to me though that too many people think that women know all there is to know as well, this "certification" should be for BOTH men and women, and not just with care of infants, but child rearing as well.

3 ( +5 / -2 )

Another good idea. I once saw an apparently-inexperienced father dump his nearly-newborn infant out of the stroller, down the stairs and onto the pavement as he was trying to exit the bus. You could tell the wife wanted to kill him. We begged them to have the baby checked, but we'll never know what happened.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

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