Really?
Part of it is pure moronic sexism. Another part is genetics, evolution and economic efficiency.

Genetically, it is more efficient for men to sleep with as many women as possible, have as many children as possible and spend as little energy on the children as possible.

For women, who can only spread their genes every nine months, it is more efficient to devote their energy to preserving the genetic material that already exists.

Essentially, a mother who stays with her kids is doing the thing that most benefits her in evolutionary terms, whereas a father is not - he is sacrificing time and energy that could be better spent spreading his genes.

In those terms, it makes sense. But believing, as I do, that the human race should be able to rise above evolutionary imperative due to what I like to call "brains", it is still no excuse. I hope people think better of you in the future. If it helps, I respect you for doing what you do in a society where you get far less help than previous generations of parents ever did, despite the beliefs of the OMG BENEFIT SCUM cult.
(cypherspace is not a toaster, Mon 28 Dec 2009, 1:08, Reply)