Why is it...

when women want to stay home and be with their children they are criticised for it -- but when men want to stay home with their children they are praised?

I was reading the Evening Standard yesterday on the train home and I read an article about Kate Winslet being criticised for dropping out of the new Woody Allen movie to be made in England -- and then there was another (positive) comment about a football player skipping a footie game to be present at the birth of his first child.

Why is there a double standard?

I read that too and was rather upset by it.  We're damned if we stay home and we're damned if we go to work. 

Hardly seems fair, does it? The life of a stay at home mom is far more demanding than that of a man going to work.

When I was home on maternity leave, I barely had the time to do the everyday things around the house, as the baby needs or wants constant attention.

Why are you guys writing this here, and not in letters to The Evening Standard?   

Yes, the Evening Standard is a double-standard.

i am beginning to learn fast that everyone in the universe has an opinion about everything to do with bringing up your child and the best thing you can do is ignore them all. On the issue of men staying at home, my dad brought up my (half) brother single handed for 10 years til he met my mum and then later for various reasons he ended up staying at home with me as well - in the 60s and 70s this was highly unusual and everyone had a comment about it and I used to get asked all the time at school and stuff if my mum was dead because it was always my dad that collected me! On one occasion when my mum collected me from my ballet class, one of the other mothers told her there was a "strange man" who usually collected his daughter there .. my mum knew who he meant - she said the woman's face was a picture when she saw me come out of the calass and go straight to my mum!

Why are you guys writing this here, and not in letters to The Evening Standard?   

I did -- still no reply of any kind.  I wrote regarding the Tube strike too -- got a reply from the Mayor's office -- but no comment on working Mother's..... ho hummm