A lot has been written and said about how men assume the role of ‘providers’ in a family unit and how women are expected to be the ‘nurturers’ in the same unit. What is not said is this - that men, in the hustle of fulfilling the role of providers, end up losing out to women when it comes to emotional bonding with the children.
Case in point: A family of four with a very conventional Indian setting except that both parents are working. Over the years, as children were born and raised, the father-figure fails to invest in bonding with the kids emotionally. 20 years down the line, he sits and wonders why his children are not disclosing or discussing anything with him and instead choose the mother (his wife) to do it.
The logic here is simple - You did not invest your time or energy into knowing the lives of your children. You cannot expect to turn up 20 years later and expect them to share their lives and the details with you, like how they do with their mother.
Parenting is not a one-way concept. Even if the mother cannot provide or support the family monetarily, emotionally it is important that both parents chip in equally. That ends up in the children sharing a healthy bond with the parent unit and, in turn, giving it forward when they become parents. While convention dictates the father focus on making money, times have changed and so have the needs of the children. Hiding behind tradition is just an excuse for one’s own ineptitude to unlearn and relearn.