HUSBAND’S ROLE

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31427, 21 July 1967, Page 5

HUSBAND’S ROLE

Explanation To Course

“The important thing in a marriage is that the husband and wife have sufficiently similar views of each other’s roles,” said Mrs R. Calvert, a lecturer in education at the University of Otago, at a meeting of the Course for Fathers, 1967, at the Canterbury Play Centres’ Association. Twenty-five fathers attended Mrs Calvert’s address, the second of a series of three lectures.

“A woman’s idea on how a husband should behave is influenced by her own early experiences,” she said. “This does not mean a woman wants a husband like her father, but most marry someone similar. “What is considered appropriate behaviour tends to somersault after marriage. Often the man dances attendance before the wedding, but later the boot is on the other foot.”

Mrs Calvert said men should see as much of their children as possible. Otherwise, the children would grow up without any real idea of what a man should be like and what he spent his life doing. Mothers sometimes tended to dominate their children because they spent all their time with them while the husband was seldom there. Boys, particularly, needed to see a lot of their fathers if they were to grow up as men and not with women's values.