BIANCA BAGNARELLI
A FRIEND WAS on a bus travelling through Cuba towards Havana, at what would have been around 9pm in the UK. Her 10-year-old rang to ask where the back door key was, as she wanted to lock up before bed. Panicking, my friend asked her daughter where Dad was. ‘He’s already gone to bed,’ she replied. ‘And I didn’t want to disturb him.’ None of my female peers has a 1950s-style marriage, and yet – like our woman in Havana – many are the ‘default’ parent. Lockdown threw thiis fact into harsh relief. Often wommed the dual burden of homeschoolen assum e earning a living – and many of their ing while husbands settled for just being present but as much he elp as a hallucination. Other women bristled at their previously office-bound men
Areyou theonethey runto? It’s called being the ‘default parent’ – the giver of comfort and keeper of all things from clean football kit to party invitations. While many women relish the role, Anna Maxted believes caring and sharing works better for families 20
Document: 1020CC-STMMA-1-160122-A020C-XX.pdf;Format:(205.00 x 260.00 mm);Date: 11.Jan 2022 14:40:57; Telegraph
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