Male nannies/childminders

The 'sitting next to a child on the plane' scenario is utterly unbelievable. Such wild-eye'd-but-focussed contempt for men in general is rarely allowed to come to the surface.

I don't.

I think any mother who thinks that no man should be allowed to look after child potentially has some complicated issues that are expressing themselves in unnecessary paranoia.

That doesn't mean she can't express them, just that I think her thought process is flawed. She can hire who she likes.

But for a business to do the same (and they do) feeds the hysteria, tbh. And is unlawful.

I would be much happier if childcare jobs were split 50/50 between the sexes, for all of the reasons stated above.

For a feminist to be arguing such sexist tosh and squealing paedo hysteria about blokes in childcare is nuts. However well spoken and many statistics they gush.

My apologies for suggesting your views had been colored by a previous life event. I am glad I was wrong, but it was really the only reason I could think of for you to be maintaining this viewpoint.

It's so much bigger than feelings.

I think men have a right to be treated as decent human beings unless they have behaved otherwise. It is degrading to assume they are peodophiles.

It's like saying you don't want your teenage son to be taught by women. Because some women are prostitutes and you wouldn't want to risk him associating with one.

Yes mothers should be able to choose not to employ men to look after their young children. Men do provide a greater risk for children of being sexually abused.

Why do you think the potential mans feelings are more important than a mother wanting to protect her children?

Not but you have said that women should be able to choose not to employ men because they pose more of a risk.

Which is pretty much the same thing.

You are emphatically wrong here, please think about it. Your views are quite scary on this issue.

No my views on this don't come from horrible past experiences. I have had a relatively easy life.

And at no time have I ever said that all men should be banned from interacting with children or jobs where they work with children. I dont think they should.

But the man on the plane was not accused of being a paedophile. He was asked to move as some men are paedophiles. So it makes sense to place an unaccompanied child next to a woman who statistically is less risk. Not no risk, but less risk.

And you know this attitude would once have been common place. A child put on a train alone would have been sat next to a motherly looking woman for example, because she would have been seen as a safer bet.

And asking a man to move seat on a plane really is not a big deal. He majorly over reacted.

You would hope that the man kicked up a fuss and refused point blank - unfortunately they take the easy way. I am highly irritated on his behalf - it simply shouldn't happen.

kim I think it was reasonable to ask that man to move seat in a plane. Nobody knew he was, and why should the employees put a child at an increased risk when it was easy to ask the man to sit elsewhere?

Dear God. Attitudes like this have no place in a modern society.

I would be very angry if I was a man and had my seat moved because I 'posed a danger' sitting next to a child - a completely hysterical reaction. What exactly is is going to manage to do on a public plane seat with parents nearby, flight attendants and a third person in the row? The mind boggles.

Eats

Don't fathers have any role/say in childccare then? Just mothers.

BTW 100% of rapes are comitted by men, so should we ban all men from public places? Actually many rapes take place in people's homes, so lets ban them from there as well.

Oh and when researchers asked paedophiles where the best place to find a child to abuse was, they said estate agents and kitchen showrooms, combination of bored child wandering off and distracted parents. They didn't mention nurseries.

Eats you know I LoveAdoreWorship really respect you, but the plane thing was really wrong. He didn't deserve to be publicly humiliated and essentially accused of being a paedophile.

A plane is hardly the place predators will be seeking out victims. Unaccompanied minors are watched like a hawk by the flight attendants and I don't think you have any idea who you'll be placed next too.

It was an hysterical reaction. I would need bloody therapy if something like that happened to me. I hope he's alright.

Eats, I think this says more about your own past, and current projections, than it does about any feminist view of the world.

Which is kinda sad, because there's (as up thread) a lot of folk who admire your general feminist principles. This just smacks of man-hating stereotype, now, and needs to be divorced from the feminist viewpoint, before once again the 'all feminists are man-haters' stuff starts up again.

Eats

So by the same logic that some men could possibly turn out to be child abusers so we had best protect all children from the risk by simply barring men from child care jobs and seats on planes next to children, would you also:

1. Stop children from attending cubs/scouts groups where men are leaders? Oh dear - rather a lot of those closing down then.

1. Stop children form playing at all mini-league football clubs where men are coaches - oh going to be fewer kids on the pitches every weekend by the looks of it.

1. Stop children being attended to by male doctors - oops, just lost half the country's medical professionals - or is this one OK because it's a high status postition and a necessary part of life so worth the risk?

Honestly, how utterly ridiculous and offensive your posts have been. I do hope that no potentially great male childcarers/ teachers/ nursery nurses have been put off by them.

Oh, and I once went to a fantastic young kids' story time at my local library hosted by .......... two male librarians!!! AAAAHHHHH - oh no!!!! The risk, the risk!!!!!!!!

Safeguarding children should not result in isolating them from all men.

That will do nothing to protect them and hurt social development to boot.

It publicly humiliated him.

Accused him of being a pedophile

AND protected no one as women are equally capable of crime in the same situation.

Kids will grow up in a very odd world if they are never allowed to interact with men.

Treating 50% of the population as criminals 'just in case' is hysteria.

No not joking at all. Asking that man to move seat caused him no issues and potentially protected a child. A perfectly reasonable request. Safeguarding children should come before safeguarding a mans hurt feelings

Eats are you joking?

Surely you are just on a wind up now?

kim I think it was reasonable to ask that man to move seat in a plane. Nobody knew he was, and why should the employees put a child at an increased risk when it was easy to ask the man to sit elsewhere?

My DH is a CM and (even if I say so myself) he is fab. The children love him and so do their parents. He does seem to have attracted more families with sons than daughters though ...

It should be unacceptable Felicity-I agree.

YY exotic, that and trying to stamp out prejudice in people's conversations. Just as it is now unnacceptable to publicly air racist opinions, so it should become about sexist/peodo hysteria ones.

We speed things up by actually employing the best person for the job and not by thinking that a woman has to be the carer for a DD.

You are right that traditionally female occupations only gain status when men join in significant numbers. But as long as we have patriarchy, sadly looking after young children is always going to be a low status job.