A mom has taken to social media to call out her son's daycare for refusing to acknowledge her male partner as a primary caregiver.
In a story highlighting gender bias and inequality, Dr. Raina Brands - a professor at the UCL School of Management - took to Twitter earlier this week to recall the repeated issues she has been facing with her son's daycare.
In her first tweet, Dr. Brands writes: "Our son has been in daycare since the beginning of the year. If he is sick and needs to come home early, they call me. If they want to give him paracetamol, they call me. If he has injured himself they call me. So what?
"I have repeatedly asked them to call my partner first. I have asked them to put a note on my file about that. I have asked the manager. Today they called and I asked them to always call my partner first and 2 hours later THEY CALLED ME AGAIN."
The professor - who also works with women to help "de-bias their careers" - continued: "What makes this more absurd is the fact that my partner has always been the main point of contact! He filled out all of the forms, he did all of the settling-in sessions, and he drops our son off every morning. But they are incapable of viewing him as a primary caregiver."
Dr. Brands added: "When I say gender inequality is a self-reinforcing system, this is what I'm talking about."
Undoubtedly an issue many parents have faced with their own children, other Twitter users responded to Dr. Brands Twitter thread with their own stories of their own childcare struggles.
"My husband is the [point of contact] for our kids. He and I were hanging out one day - my phone was upstairs. When I finally got it, there were THIRTEEN MISSED CALLS FROM THE SCHOOL. My kid had thrown up and instead of calling him, they left increasingly hostile messages," one person wrote.
They continued: "'Ma'am, we need [you] to come get your daughter.' 'We've called several times and don't want to have to interrupt your husband.' 'If you don't respond to this message, we're going to have to let your husband know you were unavailable to care for your kid.' I. was. livid."
One father added: "I’m a stay home dad. Primary caregiver to the kids. My wife is a busy corporate executive and they still insist on calling her first. Often she can’t take the call, so they’ll try her again later rather than call me like they should. It is beyond frustrating and disrespectful."
Sharing another example of gender bias, one woman wrote: "Our daycare has been great all along, knows my husband is the person who is available, not me. But I met with a financial advisor and they asked for my husband to be present. I said, no, this is my career, I’m here to talk about my finances. They didn’t get it, so I walked out."
Has anything like this ever happened to you? Let us know in the comments section.