Mangaluru: For Advait Gopalan, spending time with his kids is one big stress buster. “In my family, all men realize how important it is to help our wives with parenting responsibilities,” Gopalan says. “We are happy to contribute in our own small way.”
Welcome to the new generation of ‘Penguin Dads’, a tribe which is growing in Mangaluru too — according to a survey by e-retailer Flipkart.
Present-day fathers cannot be defined as breadwinners or by their professional credentials alone. Penguin Dads are those who choose to make time to bond with their children.
They battle the boardroom just as easily as they do baby baths; change diapers as easily as gears and play chef, clown and caretaker with equal ease.
They want to be involved in every aspect of their child’s life — not because they are forced to — but because they want to play an equal role in being a parent.
Penguin Dads are the antithesis of the archetypal Indian dad, challenging and breaking stereotypes about who does what in the family. They represent the progressive change in the fatherhood narrative in India.
They’re just regular dads taking an active interest in their child’s life, driven by the motivation to be seen as a friend to their child.
Interestingly, the survey found that 83% of Mangaluru dads prefer to be ‘stay at home dads’, 32% more than the average across the country, making it the highest score in the cities surveyed.
The next two spot is begged by Lucknow while Bhubaneshwar and Nagpur hold third position jointly.