5 Comments
Jan 29Liked by Molly Dickens, PhD

I'm in! ---- re: "my secret plot to push a culture shift that will enhance caregiving-related neural plasticity in non-birth parents (mostly fathers, for reasons mentioned below), and distribute the emotional labor load for future generations."

Great article, Molly!

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yes! we need everyone in on this one!

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not so secret plan!!

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well, you do know ALL my secret plans 😄

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Such an important piece! I can't wait for the research to catch up here, I have so many questions I need answered here!. I mean, how early does it start? All the way back to when little girls have dolls and little boys don't? How much time does a caregiver have to have with a child to experience the change? Can you start this before your kid is born (baby crying tapes as gifts at dad-baby showers???).

Anyways, I'm super passionate about this topic and it's extra timely for me because I just finished becoming a certified Fair Play (Eve Rodsky's work on redistributing parenting & domestic labor) coach and I hope I can use these tools to help nudge some progress in this arena.

One brilliant tip I heard from that training was IF the dad gets paternity leave, make sure they take some during a time when mom has already gone back to work so they're holding the full load. Game changer (assuming leave, ugh).

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