Traditions of the Father...

... we're mainly patriarchal. Hardly do we hear the phrase 'traditions of the mothers'. In almost every known culture, a child is named after the father, or rather he takes on the father's family name. A father is supposed to be the head of a family...

We were taking my son for a haircut earlier... at an Indian barber, incidentally. It's been years since his last haircut at the shop. When he was in Primary school, I would cut his hair but as he moved on to Sec School, Other Half would do it for him. It's hard to find Chinese young men at the Indian barber anymore and there was none out of the 7 people who were there waiting for their haircut except Other Half and Son.

I think one reason being, while it's the traditions of the fathers that we claim we follow, it's actually the ways of the mothers which are being carried out. Look at how many boys end up in hair salons these days. Used to be dads who will take the sons for their haircuts. But these days, it's the mom who does so... Moms don't go to the barber, they go to the hairstylists who operate the salons... so when they take their sons for a haircut, it's only natural that they take them to a place they're familiar with... and the boys are imbued with the 'girlie' ways. LOL!

So we now have boys who are at home at hair salons cos they've been conditioned by their moms.... so from the hair salon, they learned about dyeing the hair, styling it, facial, manicure and pedicure.... in short pick up all those lady pursuits. We have within this gen, the term Metroman. Look at the gen of men before this. Most of them would balk at all these save for perhaps dyeing their hair black, their original colour.... Now I hear of young men balking at the idea of having an Indian barber cut... for the worry that their 'lovely' (LOL) hair would suffer indignance at the rough snip or shave of the hairtrimmer shavers handled by these non-feminine hands... And guys actually look rather 'pretty' these days if I may add... (whatever happened to handsome)

Traditions of the fathers... it's more theory than practice now as mothers assume not only the role of mothering but fathering as well..... It used to be fathers do boy stuff with their sons and mothers did the girl stuff with their daughters.... These days, mothers do all stuff with their children! LOL! Is that healthy? I doubt it. Fathers have their roles but they just don't seem to be playing them as they should as their wives become more 'capable'. So the ma becomes the Jack (should it be Jane?) of all trades while dad hides behind the veils of 'busyness' and 'quality time' while being demoted to just being a figurehead or the one who brings in the dough....As a result, indecisive sons unsure of their responsibilities as men, young men becoming effeminate?? I think we've broken out of an old cycle and started on a new one. Just my 2 sen of ramblings.