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Sharing the Load: Why Co-Parenting is Vital to Your Child’s Development

Sharing the load by co-parenting

Raising a child is a challenging experience. The old saying, “It takes a village to raise a child,” takes on a whole new meaning when a couple becomes parents for the first time. A child can survive in a single-parent household, but most child psychologists agree that it is in the best interest of a child for both parents to divvy up the responsibilities of parenting and the father’s role in parenting is equally important to the mother’s. Here’s why sharing the load – aka co-parenting – can set your child’s development on the optimal course.

How Co-Parenting Benefits Kids

Children whose parents help one another and share responsibility in all household and parenting duties are likely to be well adjusted as adults. More so than children with one parent that solely takes on the majority of child care in the home. Whether it is a simple task of packing your cute diaper tote or cleaning up a spill on the couch, your child is watching and learning from your behavior all the time.

Social and Psychological Benefits

Children benefit, both socially and psychologically, from having both parents participate in child-rearing. Co-parenting teaches kids how to communicate and resolve conflict in healthy ways.

That’s in addition to learning other useful skills, including how their mom and dad handle parenting and other household responsibilities. Children will learn from and practice these skills throughout their lives, so it’s important to set a good example early on for them. By sharing the load with your partner around the house, from doing laundry to washing dishes, you can do exactly that.

Young Children are Very Impressionable

Children are like sponges. They soak up everything they touch, see, or hear; then they form their own beliefs and understandings from watching others interact with one another. From the time they are born, children begin to learn and mimic the behaviors of their parents and other close family members.

So, when a child is young especially, make sure they witness the benefits of successfully sharing the load between you and your spouse. Then they can later apply those same great skills in their own life. The way you two share the load, including what you say and your actions with one another, as well as how you communicate with others outside of the home, will make an impression on your child at an early age.

Teamwork: Share the Load Equally as Parents

For parents to be successful at sharing the responsibility of having a child, it is important to build a strong relationship and form teamwork. If one parent sees the other struggling, he or she should step in and help, if possible, in order to balance some of the stress of parenting out between both partners.

It is important for parents to be on the same page. Work to communicate effectively to avoid conflict that can cause more damage than good to a child’s emotional health.

Conflict Resolution

Parents who are successfully co-parenting usually have low-stress levels and resolve any conflict in a healthy and productive manner. This is a skill your child will pick up on and will use in their own interactions with other kids and friends. It will also help your child to negotiate and resolve conflict well as they enter adulthood.

Mothers and Fathers Offer Different Things

Yale University Medical School and Child Study Lab’s child psychiatrist Kyle D. Pruett, M.D. says that mothers and fathers each bring something different to the table when it comes to parenting. Children react differently to each parent because of these differences in parenting and approaches to various issues that arise. As long as parents successfully manage their responsibilities as a team or share the load, these differences will benefit the child rather than hinder them.

Sharing the Load: Tradition Turned on Its Head

Traditionally, women were expected to perform most of the child care responsibilities while fathers were expected to provide for their family financially and handle discipline. In the past 50 years, though, there has been a shift to the parenting paradigm. By the 1970s, most women began working in addition to raising children and taking care of household responsibilities.

Today, both parents in most families work outside the home. And, as a result, childcare doesn’t fall on the shoulders of only one parent. Instead, there’s a lot of co-parenting. In this scenario, mothers and fathers work together to manage all household chores and care for the children effectively. Sharing the load benefits their marriage and creates a happier and healthier household for their children.

There are Differences between Mothers and Fathers

As Dr. Pruett points out, both parents have different approaches to parenting and bring different emotions to interactions with their children. Furthermore, children respond differently to those interactions. Mothers tend to be more tender and nurturing in interactions with their kids. Meanwhile, fathers tend to be more exciting and unpredictable. Children see these differences and learn to react to these qualities, which can benefit the child overall.

As a clinical child psychiatrist, Dr. Pruett spent many years researching child and parent interactions. He also learned a lot from the interactions with his kids. Then, at 54 years old, he became a father for the third time and says he now plays a more active role in being a father. He has written several books on the importance of a father’s role in parenting and the advantages of successfully co-parenting.

Importance of a Father’s Role in Parenting

Pruett says in his interview with The New York Times, that children benefit from having an active father in their lives. Children whose fathers participate in their upbringing are more likely to stay in school. They’re also less likely to be involved in criminal activity.

He also cites the many psychological benefits to children having fathers who are active parents. For example, there can be reduced suicide rates and death rates resulting from accidents. This improved emotional and mental health also leads to success in many aspects of a child’s adult life.

Co-Parenting Works

When you’re parents who share the load, you teach your kids vital life skills. Essentially, you’re helping them to be healthier, happier, more successful adults down the road.

While mothers traditionally have provided most child care, research shows fathers are equally important in a child’s development. Ideally, both parents work together and communicate well in order to provide the best environment for their children.

Your Thoughts on Sharing the Load as Parents

Do you find it difficult sharing the load with your partner when it comes to parenting or has it been an easy thing to do? Also, do you have a positive story to share about a certain father’s role in parenting? Speak up in the comments section below!

52 thoughts on “Sharing the Load: Why Co-Parenting is Vital to Your Child’s Development”

  5. prinxy

    Nice one… Am thankful to God that my Mom and Dad raised me… There is great Joy and Security (physically) being with your parents… And the Love they both gave to me is overwhelming….👏👏👏👏
    Nice one Christy

    Reply
  7. jgarrott

    Excellent post, and thanks for the follow. Otherwise I might never have read this! I do a lot of marital counseling, and I find that parenting issues are often central to what is going on. The parents need to realize that they, not the children, are the foundation of the family, and if the foundation is off-balance, everything else is too. May the truth you proclaim reach many!

    Reply
    1. Anonymous

      Thank you for appreciating the sentiments in this post. It is wonderful to learn more about you and connect in the blog world.

    1. Anonymous

      Thanks Stephanie! I was over at your blog looking around yesterday and will be back soon. Lots to read and see :)

  15. Bun Karyudo

    My wife and I shared a lot of the childrearing, particularly in the early days. We took getting up to feed and change the baby in turns. (Obviously, they were bottle fed when it was my turn.)

    Reply
    1. Anonymous

      It’s great to hear you shared the load between you. As for the bottle feeding, many women are doing so now rather than breastfeeding and I am glad to see that fewer women are feeling shamed about doing so. Thanks for taking time here!

    2. Bun Karyudo

      Breastfeeding and bottle feeding both have their advantages. Nobody should be made to feel ashamed for choosing one or the other. :D

  18. Mabel Kwong

    Brilliantly written, Christy. I’m all for co-parent and both parties to take an active role in bringing up their children. It certainly is important for children to learn the values of teamwork and sharing from a young age – as you said, these traits lead to less stress. By working together, you also learn to accept different points of view and be humble about not being right all the time.

    I was raise in a household where my dad was the predominant breadwinner and my mum took care of the house and kids. For a long time, I thought that dad was always right. When I grew older I realised that dad worked hard to support the family financially but as a woman, I can do anything if I set my mind to it. Sometimes circumstances limit us to what we can do. But there is no harm trying.

    Reply
    1. Anonymous

      I’m so glad you gained this awareness about yourself as you grew up, Mabel. So true that we have to at least try xx Thanks for the lovely comment and sharing your experiences here :)

  21. ghostwritingplus

    Excellent article! My husband and I were fortunate to be very active & involved in our kids’ everyday lives. Now they’re in their 20s and we all remain very close. I’ve always wondered why somebody would choose to have children but then not be very involved in their lives. I feel that a hands-off parent misses out on so much (as do the children). In any case, awesome article and like I said, I feel truly blessed by the family life my husband, our kids and I had when they were little and the closeness we continue to have now that they’re adults :)

    Reply
    1. Anonymous

      It is wonderful how close you and your husband are with your grown children and I wish more families had this beautiful quality! :)

  22. Let's CUT the Crap!

    I agree with this post and I believe the current generation has already caught on. In the old, old days when I was young, Mother stayed home to look after the kids and the household while Daddy slept because he’d worked hard earning money. I like the idea of sharing responsibilities. <3 <3 <3

    Reply
  23. rollyachabotbooks

    Hi Christy…
    Excellent post even though I have never had children. Being brought up in a family as mine I was truly blessed. I was given so many of the life skills needed for todays world. I am so very thankful.

    Hugs

    Reply
    1. Anonymous

      It is wonderful how thankful you are, Rolly. I think we share that viewpoint as I am grateful too for the family support. Hugs

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