Greetings my esteemed readers, I must affirm that this week's prompt really caught my attention owing to the fact that gender in family is involved, funny enough this topic has actually been ringing in my consciousness lately and I will once again find it as a pleasure to share my experience with you all.
I am from Nigeria, and as many that are in same geographical location as me will agree with me that the roles of males and females in family are governed by societal ideologies and are distinctively different it it assumed that whatever role a female plays is strictly for a female, if a male should be found playing a role which belongs to a female, the society often responded to it negatively.
***Its funny how the society even goes as far as nick naming a male who always involved in playing female roles as a WOMAN WRAPPER. ***
Well, that's by the way, societal ideologies never got to affect my family in terms of how gender roles were regulated.
Here's how it happened in n my family, I come from a family of six(6) children, that's much I know but to me it was only an opportunity to explore the joy of having a large family but you know five siblings isn't a joke and at some point of my they were a pain in my nerve, a few times though. The sad part of having Five(5) siblings is that only one lady existed amongst us(five boys),I sincerely don't know how this beautiful lady got to cope being a Lone Wolf and owing to the fact that boys are the lousiest beings,not all though, boys such as myself aren't lousy.
When you talk about gender roles in Nigeria, the first thought that pops in the mind of a Nigeria is house chores, this is true but not all to it.
With regards to family chores, me and my siblings couldn't really play separate roles in terms of gender and the reason was because most of us were boys and the only lady being the second(2nd) child had to be a boarder, she attended a boarding school and this never gave us the privilege to experience her advantages. We as boys literally did everything and I mean every single thing including kitchen businesses. My parents never really cared who did them, they just wanted everything done, looking tidy and excellent, they were really busy set of parents, dad was a civil engineer who will always move out morning and come back evening, same routine applied to my mom who was a cook.
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The society should accept that family roles shouldn't differ amongst gender till when necessary, common I cooked for my siblings all the times I stay with them irrespective of my gender (male), what If I had adopted the ideologies of the society and never got to be a cook, how well will we have lived, how much of a comfortable home would I have had.
***Gender shouldn't be an excuse to run away from responsibility, we are all entitled to same potentials and can also do all things when necessary. ***