There are 4 year community colleges around. There’s one in my hometown, in California, in fact. It doesn’t offer a large number of options for a Bachelors degree, though. There’s also a 4 year community college about 30 miles north of where I live now.
Maybe he’s going to the store to get diapers or some other things. We don’t really know.
When you have your own business you don’t have paid paternity leave. In the 80’s, as others have pointed out, men didn’t have that sort of thing, either. There certainly wasn’t that kind of expectation. So his going off to work (assuming that’s what he’s doing) isn’t an issue for them.
Granted, it was a long time ago but when two of the three of us kids were born Dad had to go to work. He was a principal and two of us were born during the school year, so he had to work (one brother was born during the summer). In those days mothers stayed in the hospital for awhile after giving birth. Dad had to arrange for babysitters for when he went to work while Mom was in the hospital. When mom came home she was on her own during the day, although she did have a housekeeper who came in twice a week to help out. When my older sister came home from school (different dad), she helped out. Nobody thought anything out it. It’s just how it was done.
Cut out TV. No movies, no junk food, no store-bought coffee, no streaming services, no downloading new music, only necessities for kids clothing, sister and mother pay rent……
Do they pay Mom and Dad to fix their meals, do their laundry, buy their clothes, etc? It’s a two-way street if they’re going to behave that way. They need to understand that taking care of a household is a team effort. I can see paying or giving them something special if something is out of the ordinary or requires a lot of hard work. That gives kids a little extra incentive. Regular household chores is something everyone needs to do.
There are 4 year community colleges around. There’s one in my hometown, in California, in fact. It doesn’t offer a large number of options for a Bachelors degree, though. There’s also a 4 year community college about 30 miles north of where I live now.