# Do Stay-At-Home Parents Get Shafted?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-stay-at-home-parents-get-shafted/997489>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [February 12, 2024, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-stay-at-home-parents-get-shafted/997489 "2024-02-12T20:07:43Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\
**Post date:** [February 16, 2024, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-stay-at-home-parents-get-shafted/997489/41 "2024-02-16T15:54:34Z")

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Wait, I’m confused: are the father’s children viewed as the “warden” or the “guards” in this analogy?

Either way, it seems like a weirdly antagonistic attitude to take towards one’s own children.

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**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\
**Post date:** [February 16, 2024, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-stay-at-home-parents-get-shafted/997489/42 "2024-02-16T20:30:37Z")

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The wife is the “warden” and the children are “prison guards”.

I assumed if the father liked his wife and kids he wouldn’t have gotten a divorce and would make more of an effort to maintain a relationship with his children.

Look, I love my wife and kids and all. But when I’m on the highway driving them all to my in-laws house with the kids fighting and screaming in the back, it often takes a force of will to not drive the car into the next stationary object.

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**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\
**Post date:** [February 16, 2024, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-stay-at-home-parents-get-shafted/997489/43 "2024-02-16T23:58:02Z")

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> [@Jay\_Z](#):
>
> But I don’t need to read online comments like “a man is a deadbeat if he doesn’t have 50-50.”

It seems self-evident that they’re not referring to dads who tried to get 50-50 (or more) but didn’t succeed.

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