こむつまの日記

東京から熊本に移住したごく普通の専業主婦が思い出を消費するブログです。

うちの旦那は専業主夫(House Husband)になりたいらしい

こむつまは専業主婦です。

 

我が家では、旦那が外貨を稼ぎ(Husband is the bread-winner)、こむつまが家事・育児の中心を担っている(Wife stay at home with the kids)というような昔ながらの形態をとっています。

 

旦那と話をしていてよく話題になるのですが、旦那は本当は専業主夫になりたいそうです。

 

つまり、旦那が家事・育児をして、こむつまが外で働いて給料を稼いできてくれると嬉しいとのこと。

 

ただ、人には向き・不向きがあるわけで、こむつまと旦那とを比較した場合、明らかに旦那の方が外に出て仕事をする方が向いていると思うんですよね。

 

こむつまはコミュ障ですし、飽きっぽい性格ですし、そもそも世のため人のために働こうという意欲がありません。

 

「私とあなたのどちらかが外で働いて給料を稼いでこないと、一家が生きていけないのだから仕方がないでしょう。あなたの方が向いてるわ」

と言ってこの話題はいつも終了するのですが、もし、我が家が大金持ちで、外で働く(給料を稼ぐ)必要が無いのであれば、旦那は仕事を辞め、こむつまと二人で「主夫」と「主婦」をやりたいそうです。

 

専業主夫といえば、何か月か前の「実践ビジネス英語」で、House husbandをテーマにした「Role Reversal」というタイトルのビニエットがあったことを思い出しました。

 

実はこむつま、毎日ラジオで英語の勉強をしてるんです。

勉強と言っても、家事をしながら基礎英語なんかを聞き流しているだけなんですが。

さすが専業主婦。 

 

調べてみたら、1月の放送でしたね。

 

面白い内容ですので、書き起こしてみました。

 

Umemura Seiji: Thanks again for asking your friends to invite me to their party this weekend, Kay. That was very kind of you.

 

Kay Breakstone: You're very welcome, Seiji. I've told Anne-Marie and Scott all about you, and they're dying to meet you.

 

Umemura: It's BYOB, right?

 

Breakstone: Yes, it is. I hope you don't mind.

 

Umemura: Not at all. I'll bring along a nice bottle of sake I've been saving for just such an occasion.

 

Breakstone: Anne-Marie and Scott are a C-suite couple. She's the chief talent officer at a major international consulting firm, and he was chief financial officer at the same company.

 

Umemura: Wow, they sound like quite the power couple. But did you say Scott "was" the CFO?

 

Breakstone: That's right. There used to be an unwritten rule that when a couple from the same company got married, the woman had to leave to become a homemaker.

 

Umemura: That's basically how it was at many companies in Japan too.

 

Breakstone: But here in the U.S., we're seeing more women keep working and men quitting or taking a leave of absence to look after things on the home front.

 

Breakstone: They're becoming stay-at-home dads.

 

Umemura: I thought that people who completely devote themselves to taking care of their families reduce their employability and future earning potential- Whether they're male or female.

 

Breakstone: Well, that wouldn't matter so much for the Bairds, because Anne-Marie is making a six-figure salary. She and Scott talked it over at length. They decided that it was best for Scott to give up his well-paying but high-stress job so he could be at home full-time and take care of their children.

 

Carmen Garcia: Wow, what a great husband.

 

Breakstone: They say they've never regretted their decision. Scott's in no hurry to return to the corporate world.

 

Umemura: Cool. This party will give me a chance to experience another interesting aspect of American society. I'm really looking forward to meeting this interesting couple.

 

Sieve Lyons: They would have been quite the anomaly just a few decades ago, but today many men are rethinking the whole concept of fatherhood.

 

Garcia: I recently met a househusband by the name of Jonathan.

 

Garcia: He said he's proud of his role but admitted that it's not all smooth sailing. It really bugs him when people assume he's henpecked or that he's not really supporting his family.

 

Lyons: I can imagine. How did he wind up being a househusband?

 

Garcia: Well, Jonathan says it wasn't something he'd ever imagined doing. But a couple of things made him consider it as an option. First his business went under, despite his best efforts to keep it afloat.

 

Umemura: Oh, I'm sorry. That must have been really hard on him.

 

Garcia: It was. Then the company where his wife works offered her a big promotion that would mean a lot of travel. Jonathan encouraged his wife to take the job and said he would become a full-time parent for their daughter, who was 5 at the time. He felt that wa s how he could best contribute to the family.

 

Lyons: What a mensch. Behind every great woman stands a modest and kind-hearted man. Dads are the new moms. It's not a "man bites dog" story anymore.

 

Breakstone: Stay-at-home dads are still the minority, but they're a growing minority. The U.S. Census Bureau figure I have is that there were 214,000 married, full-time stay-at-home dads in 2013.

 

Kay Breakstone: That compares with about 5.2 million married stay-at-home moms. And for the first time moms are the bread-winners in almost half of U.S. households with children. That's a big jump from just 10 % in 1960 and stems from the increased presence of women in the workplace.

 

Steve Lyons: Changing rules and an evolving economy have reshaped society. Barely one generation from when America was an "Ozzie and Harriet" nation.

 

Umemura Seiji: Sorry, what nation?

 

Steve Lyons: I was referring to a classic sitcom from the 1950s and 60s. The husband Ozzie was the bread-winner, and his wife Harriet stayed at home with the kids. Now the role are being reversed.

 

Carmen Garcia: Yes. With more women entering the workforce in the price of child care going up. I think we can expect a big spike in the number of stay-at-home dads.

 

Steve Lyons: Not too long ago, people didn't think fathers have an important role to play in the children's development. But recent research shows that dad's participation in child- rearing benefits children both biologically and psychologically.

 

Steve Lyons: But a lot of the public has mixed feelings about working mothers. Half the people answering the recent survey thought that made it harder for marriages to be successful.

 

Carmen Garcia: Jonathan said that the hardest thing about being a house husband is dealing with people who are judgmental about the choice he and his wife have made. That includes some stay-at-home moms. Some catty types tell them how sorry they are that he couldn't find the job. He feels like they are insinuating that he somehow less of a man for being a stay-at-home dad.

 

Kay Breakstone: Right. Because raising happy healthy children doesn't require determinations, stamina, and creativity anything like that.

 

Steve Lyons: American corporate culture is still catching up with this reversal of traditional gender roles, too. There are still a lot of companies where men are expected to put the company first and family second. Taking a break to be a househusband can permanently damage your career prospects at such places.

 

Kay Breakstone: Sad but true. My friend Scott knows he is not likely to get back in the C-suite again. But he doesn't have a problem with that. The way he sees it, it's more important to be with his family instead of working and traveling all the time. 

  

「They decided that it was best for Scott to give up his well-paying but high-stress job so he could be at home full-time and take care of their children.」の部分なんて、うちの旦那の主張そのものです。

 

あなたは高給取りじゃないけどね。

 

ではでは、See you later, alligator.