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Comment by echelon_musk | Hacker News Reader

Men can't have children.

That really should only matter for the direct maternity leave and maybe some disruption at work during pregnancy. The years of child raising after that point is probably more important for this?

By that stage most mothers have already formed emotional bonds to their children which can't easily (at all?) be replaced even by a father. Raising a child isn't some sort of equation, Marx.

So have paternity leave too so men can form those bonds.

Men can care for and raise children.

Which is a great backup, but they tend to be physically, psychologically and emotionally less suited to it. Most men are less motherly than most women. We are not blank slates.

Evidence?

Men are less "motherly" because we are discouraged by society from being that. Even your choice of words shows your prejudice.

I was my kids primary parent when married and a single dad after divorce. I am MUCH better suited to raising kids than my ex-wife was. That is largely a result of how I was raised to have empathy and care about people.

> Even your choice of words shows your prejudice.

My implication that being motherly is good for a primary child raiser shows my prejudice? It's actually just a random phenomenon detached from fitness?

What's your opinion of apple pie?

To try to remove the word motherly there, your comment could be written as:

Most men are worse parents than most women.

Do you think that is a good representation of what you are saying? Do you think it's true? Are men inherently worse at parenting, or is there something else at play?

And I would also like to know what your evidence is for that.

I think we are coming close to some of the issues causing the current fertility crisis.

Men and women play two different, complementary, and equally necessary roles when rearing children. Still, rearing children is more time-consuming for the woman than it is for the man.

> Men and women play two different, complementary, and equally necessary roles when rearing children.

Numerous studies and several meta analyses found no significant differences between children raised by 1 man and 1 woman, 2 men, or 2 women. Studies or interpretations which found differences made errors such as not controlling for divorce.[1]

[1] https://whatweknow.inequality.cornell.edu/topics/lgbt-equali...

Big if true

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