Nigerian Writer, Sugabelly Writes Why A Child Should Take The Mom’s Surname
Culturally, in most parts of the world, it is normal for a woman to drop her father’s name and take on her husband’s name as her surname and their children would follow suit.
In some cases, the compound name is adopted, where the woman keeps her father’s name but adds her husband name, separated with an hyphen. In rare cases, everyone keeps their names as it is but if they have children, a compound name is adopted. One thing is common though, the children often adopt their father’s name.
However, this is not the case for this young Nigerian writer identified as @sugabelly on Twitter who recently took to social media to state out reasons why a child should bear its mother’s surname rather than the father’s.
According to Sugabelly, women are the ones who go through life-threatening situations to bear these children and do majority of the child care. In her opinion, she believes the pains of childbirth are enough for the the child to be named after the mother and not the father.
Read her post:
”Everyone fights so much about women taking their husband’s name when the real issue is why should the child bear the father’s surname when women are the ones who face death to give birth, and the ones who do majority of all child care worldwide?”
She went on to state a quote from The Story of Yanxi Palace:
”When a woman gives birth, one of her feet steps into the gates of Hell. And it’s actually true. Every woman who gets pregnant knows or should know that there is a distinct chance of her not making it out of the labour room alive. That’s the reason why the first statement always made about a new birth is “Mother and child are both healthy” Women die.
One of her followers then wrote that he who proposes should get the name. She then responded saying proposal can never be equated with giving birth to a child and nurturing the child for a lifetime.
She replied:
”Because proposing marriage is equal to giving birth and nurturing that life for a lifetime not to mention years of unpaid and unappreciated domestic labour?.”
Then another man asked:
“So are you saying that the men don’t partake in “years of unpaid and unappreciated domestic labour”.
”Statistically yes. Most men do not or do the barest minimum in marriages worldwide yet reap most of the benefits.
Most children pick their mothers first because most fathers make no effort towards caring for children. If you want children to pick you, spend your time looking after them not just paying school fees and thinking you have done something.
READ ALSO: Controversial Feminist, Nkechi Bianze On Why Children Should Not Take Fathers’ Last Names
https://twitter.com/sugabelly/status/1126859564094296064