‘He should be ashamed’: Fathers react to Boris Johnson’s hesitancy over baby nappy changing

On 29 April Boris Johnson and his companion, Carrie Symonds introduced the arrival of a child boy.

The newborn is Ms Symonds’ first youngster and the sixth that Mr Johnson has publicly acknowledged to have fathered.

After the being pregnant announcement in February – with the due date stated to be “mid 2020” – Boris Johnson was quizzed over whether or not he can be taking a fingers on method to childcare: particularly altering his child’s nappy.

Throughout an look on ITV’s This Morning, the politician gave a sequence of incomplete sentences and was reluctant to reply. When pushed additional he replied: “I count on so, I count on so.”

Fathers and parenting teams have expressed their disapproval over Johnson’s unclear reply.

William McGranaghan, founding father of organisation Dads House that gives assist for single fathers, instructed The Impartial that he believes Mr Johnson’s feedback regarding nappy altering are “disgraceful”.

“Dads at the moment are extra concerned of their youngsters’s lives than ever,” Mr McGranaghan stated.

“As he’s the prime minister he ought to at all times set an instance.”

Round 400,000 households had been headed by lone fathers in 2012 (newest knowledge accessible) representing 13.5 per cent of all single-parent households within the UK, in response to the Workplace for Nationwide Statistics.

Phil Schofield, from Kent, is a father of a five-year-old son and stated that Johnson needs to be “ashamed” over his non-committal perspective.

“Boris needs to be ashamed,” Mr Schofield instructed The Impartial. “He needs to be highlighting the thrill of fatherhood and letting different dads comprehend it’s regular to vary nappies. It’s a part of being a dad.”

On Twitter dads had been additionally fast to sentence Johnson, one person commented: “Altering nappies is a part of being a dad. As I did at 6.20am at the moment.”

“I solely have one youngster (who’s now all grown up) however I by no means had any qualms about altering nappies,” one other remarked.

Some additionally began utilizing the hashtag “#realmenchangenappies” to specific their frustration with the prime minister.

In 2014, American information present At present carried out a survey of two,000 moms and dads on nappy altering habits.

Of the fathers who took half within the research, greater than half stated they alter their infants’ nappies however acknowledged that this may need been a generational change with solely 37 per cent saying their very own fathers modified their nappies after they had been infants.

A survey performed by WaterWipes in 2017 found that three quarters of fathers stated that they had modified extra nappies than their very own fathers did after they had reached the identical stage of parenthood.​

Cathy Finlay, an antenatal practitioner at parenting charity NCT, defined to The Impartial that whereas each household has “completely different approaches to juggling every day life with a child”, these days fathers “are usually fingers on with duties resembling altering nappies”.

“Within the early days with a new child, dads can generally really feel like a secondary father or mother on the subject of feeding, caring and soothing their child, however they will and do play an essential function,” Ms Finlay stated, talking in reference to fathers in mixed-sex relationships.

“Having a child is a large life change and it could actually take a little bit of time for each mums and dads to regulate to their new roles as dad and mom, however getting concerned with the every day duties might help dads to really feel extra bonded with their youngster.”

Johnson has 4 youngsters from his second marriage to lawyer and columnist Marina Wheeler. His fifth youngster was born in 2009 following an extra-marital affair.

In 2006, Johnson wrote that children of poorer working moms had been extra prone to “mug you on the road nook” in a group of writings titled “Have I Received Views For You”.

He wrote: “The result’s that, in households on decrease incomes, the ladies have completely no selection however to work, usually with antagonistic penalties for household life and society as a complete.

“In that unloved and undisciplined youngsters usually tend to turn out to be hoodies, Neets [not in education, employment or training] and mug you on the road nook.”