Nigerian Dad, Ayo Bankole Voices His Disappointment After He Went To His Child’s PTA Meeting & Found 4% Of Parents In Attendance Were Men
A Nigerian dad has taken to Twitter to voice out his disappointment after he went for his son’s PTA meeting and noticed that only 4% of parents in attendance were fathers.
According to Ayo Bankole, it is “unacceptable” and he shared a thread suggesting how fathers can be more involved in parenting. He tweeted:
“So I attended my first Parents’ meeting at my son’s school. Only 4% of attendees were Fathers. Even the content was skewed towards Mothers, an acceptance that parenting is mainly for mothers. Unacceptable. Fathers must actively seek to increase their participation in parenting.”
He went further to explain that the excuse that fathers are busy working can no longer fly because mothers also work yet make out time to be there for their kids. He then suggested a solution:
“Simple ways Dads can increase participation to include dedicating daily time to participate in at least one child raising activity, eg waking early to bath the child if possible, feeding, school runs, or sports. I earlier shared how to support after birth.
“Educators must also devise ways to increase and/or compel Father participation in parent activities. It is unacceptable that schools should design their parent engagement content for women. Acceptance of a problem does nothing to solve it. Fines, admission terms, etc. are a few.
“My engagements with mums at the meeting found that not only did Dads not show up at school, many do not actively contribute to parenting. Hence this thread. There are no perfect Dads or Mums, but we can create a better future by building kids with balanced parenting. End.”
Read the full thread below…
So I attended my first Parents' meeting at my son's school. Only 4% of attendees were Fathers. Even the content was skewed towards Mothers, an acceptance that parenting is mainly for mothers. Unacceptable. Fathers must actively seek to increase their participation in parenting.
— Ayò-Bánkólé Akíntújoyè (@AyoBankole) November 21, 2019