Written Material
The making of a dad
This article maps two journeys of a father and son: a bush walk and the story of what a father has learned from his son with Down Syndrome. Both journeys feed into and represent one another. What is interesting about the article is the issues it raises about parental roles. When Ian was born it was Ron (the father) who stayed at home and Renee (the mother) who went and earned the money. At times Ron found this hard to deal with – particularly in confronting his own ‘socialisation process’ as well as having to face societal assumptions about the nature of fatherhood. In highlighting these assumptions, we also learn what society sees as the appropriate role of women as mothers. None of this would have been realised, however, without the birth of Ian. Keyword: Families
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