Projects / Pairent Co.
Designers
Academic Year
2009
About the Project
Using “women” as a starting point, we were asked to localize an opportunity to use design to advocate on the behalf of a female population as defined by our own interests, so I set out to investigate ways to equalize the distribution of child-based workload.
Pairent Co acts as an umbrella company that embodies the philosophy of shared parenting. It houses two subsidiary companies: Pop Shop and Pink Link, which respond to design opportunities present for both sexes struggling to find balance in work and childcare.
Pop Shop is a for-profit store to give dads more visibility/voice in the parenting community by catering specifically to dad-centric products, classes, and forums. Proceeds support Pink Link: a non-profit that sponsors rejuvenating activities for new mothers, and aimed specifically at boosting their physical/mental well-being. It is also lures moms out of the home, thus enabling fathers to have uninterrupted time alone with the child to build confidence and bond.
My research addressing this work-life (im)balance led me to discover newer parenting models that focus on ways both partners can assume a balanced amount of the care-giving responsibilities outlined by the individual needs of the couple. Dubbed Shared Parenting this movement looks at the systemic nature of work-life balance, and I decided to concentrate on the variables within the family unit itself; specifically, couples balancing the responsibilities of infant care.
One of the major insights that continued to surface while looking for design opportunities was the idea that mothers would often act as “gatekeepers” to the child, thus perpetuating the notion that “Mother Knows Best” and preventing fathers from gaining necessary confidence in child-rearing skills. Moreover, many mothers felt guilty leaving their child or feared “missing out”; which presented a barrier both to the opportunity for fathers to have routine alone time to be build confidence and bond with the child, as well as the opportunity for women to have necessary alone time for her personal well-being. New mothers often expressed that exhaustive burden of infant care left little time to enjoy basic things such as long showers, self grooming, exercise, and socializing.
Ironically, the economic downturn has led to an increase of dads as primary caregivers, as over 80% of lay-offs directly impacting men. This so-called “daddy shift” has produced a burgeoning community of fathers who increasingly share their disdain for being treated like an anomaly within a dominant “mommy culture” — either ostracized or patronized as the ‘token dad’. Prominent daddy blogs continuously discuss the need to have a greater, more visible and vocal community of fathers so that they can help to redefine the modern day parenting movement as one with dedicated father figures as well.
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