How can a person ensure that they are fulfilling their responsibilities in their role as a parent and spouse? How can we teach these roles to our children?

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 The world we now live in is not what it once was. New technologies emerge, access to information increases, and globalization continues to grow. With new opinions and diverse cultures blending, gender roles have also been rewritten. The roles of men and women were once more clearly distinct and different from one another. However, "As demonstrated by Diekman and Eagly’s (2000) research on dynamic stereotypes, people generally think that gender stereotypes on agency have converged and will continue to do so because of the growing similarity in the employment and domestic commitments of women and men." (Gender Stereotypes Have Changed pg. 10). This quote suggests that gender roles used to be clearly defined and different from one another but now those lines are being blurred. If lines between gender roles of men and women are now confused, how then can parents and spouses be expected to know what responsibility is theirs? Does it even matter? In the Family a Proclamation to the World, the first presidency and Quorum of the 12 Apostles in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day saints proclaim that: "By divine design, fathers are to preside over their families in love and righteousness and are responsible to provide the necessities of life and protection for their families. Mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children.". Here they clearly set the distinct responsibilities of a mother and father.

These distinct roles is consistent with the results found in a research study regarding society's perspective on gender roles. Usually in the workplace"men’s agency would also be conveyed by their presence as families’ main provider and in occupations requiring competitiveness, physical prowess, and robustness, and women’s communion would be conveyed by their presence as families’ main homemaker and in occupations requiring social skills and yielding social contribution (Cortes & Pan, 2018; Levanon & Grusky, 2016)." (Gender Stereotypes Have Changed Pg. 3). Clearly, there are different strengths and skills given to men and women and society would strongly benefit from taking advantage of those abilities. However, issues arise when gender roles are confused or simply not followed.

Unfortunately, there is even confusion with gender among young children. Many children are being taught today that there are more than just male and female genders. With so many choices and at such a young age, it is erroneous to expect children to choose a different decide what gender they are or aren't. Children who are confused about their gender "before the age of puberty ... resolves over 80 percent of the time by late adolescence. ". If children are educated about their true gender roles and choose to fulfill them later in life, our society will grow stronger.

Ultimately, the goal for a mother and father should be to "rear their children in love and righteousness, to provide for their physical and spiritual needs, and to teach them to love and serve one another, observe the commandments of God, and be law-abiding citizens wherever they live.". Although some parents may wish there was a guidebook to tell them how to handle every parenting situation, that isn't realistic. Instead you should focus on the end goal of loving your children. Even when you don't feel like your parenting endeavors are enough, remember that "Jesus Christ will bless and magnify your consistent efforts." (Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf). Focus on the destination. In other words, focus on your goal and stop worrying about the small steps it takes to get there. Take parenting one foot at a time, one challenge at a time.


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