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Child Item

Michael O'Leary - his view on paternity leave.

Cian92

Micheal O'Leary has come out and said he doesn't believe in paternity leave for fathers. Basically he says the job of washing, feeding and changing a baby is the role of the Mother and the Father should be in work providing for his family.

Most women if given the choice would actually stop working when they have young children, according to straight-talking Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary.

Shooting from the hip as ever, the father of four let rip at political correctness and at the growing numbers campaigning for paid paternity leave.

Mr O’Leary said he is driven "mad" by the notion of paternity leave — "the idea that the father can now skip off for a few weeks".

He didn’t take any time off when his children were born.

"I couldn’t wait to get back to work. I don’t want to be at home with young babies, breastfeeding and changing nappies.

"That is not my function in life. This bonding stuff is rubbish... Men tend to bond with their children when they are walking, talking, following football, then we have something to say to them. When they are 0-9 months, all they are interested in is milk and mammaries."

Pouring scorn on the men who lament their inability to enjoy those early months with their babies, he said: "The fathers who feign interest at that stage are just making it up.

"I did the first nappy in the hospital and that was pretty much the only one... we sow the seed, women have the babies and after that we provide. It’s all biological."

In the wide-ranging interview with the London Times, Mr O’Leary said: "Women should work. Arab societies where they suppress women are simply doomed to failure."

He does agree, though, with many feminists when it comes to burkas — he’s against their growing acceptance in the Western world.

http://www.irishexaminer.com/text/ireland/cweysnauqlgb/

Is it just me or is this a very backward view? I'd be in favour of a minimum amount of leave for each parent and the rest spread out between the two parents, and leave it up to the parents to decide who gets it. It doesn't make sense to only give the leave to the Mother, people will say she is the one who goes through the pregnancy but just look at adoptive leave, it is still the Mother who receives the bulk of the leave and not the Father despite the fact that neither are going through a pregnancy.

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mikom

Cian92 wrote: »

In the wide-ranging interview with the London Times, Mr O’Leary said: "Women should work. Arab societies where they suppress women are simply doomed to failure."

He does agree, though, with many feminists when it comes to burkas — he’s against their growing acceptance in the Western world.

I'd prefer if O’Leary could hold back trolling this subject.
It would pain me to be blown sky-high on my next cheapo flight.

realgolfgeek

The man is an absolute legend.
He should be running this country.

BillyMitchel

Michael O Leary is obviously a very smart business man but it still doesn't change the fact he's a kunt.

D1stant

realgolfgeek wrote: »

The man is an absolute legend.
He should be running this country.

Thanks for the cliche. In reality he runs a cut-throat airline. How do you think the more vulnerable would fare under his ego? The guy is a knob.

newbie2013

he is spot on with this. Its a mothers job to look after new borns. Fs just look throughout nature, the female sticks by the baby, feeds it etc.. while the male ............. well, live the life of it. Just as it should be IMO

humbert

I don't agree with him on all the biological crap but can't get my head around maternity leave and expecting employers not to factor it into their decision.

keeponhurling

To answer the OP, yes it's a backward view

Sam Kade

D1stant wrote: »

I'd reckon Keane got over that in May 2002. It's just everyone else wants to drag it up.

I reckon he should have got over it while he was still there and not come running home like a spoilt child

El_Dangeroso

Wompa1 wrote: »

He's got a point. Just because we are 'intelligent' we tend to think we're above our 'primal instincts'

Primal instincts my left tit.

In no way is it 'primal' to leave mother on her own to complete every task in the care of a new born.

In the pygmy society of the Aka tribe fathers play a massive role in infant care, in fact the women go to hunt while the men look after the babies!

This stupid idea of the caveman provider is just 1950's historical revisionism.

Another interesting thing about hunter gatherer societies is that they 'work' ie expend energy for sustenance or shelter for an average of 16 hours a week. The rest of the time they socialise and play with their children.

I wonder if Mr. O'Leary is so interested in getting back to our primal roots, will he institute a 16 hour week on full pay?

5p9arw38djv2b4

To be fair, this is not new, he has done several interviews over the years about how he prefers to work than spend time with his family - and often said that once the kids are bigger it would be more worthwhile for him to be with them at that point. But he also says he doesn't believe in 2 day weekends or sick days. He is a total workhorse. While I don't agree with a lot of what he says he did one interview years ago that was inspiring/ stuck with me - and that was if you are lucky enough to have a job and healthy enough to do it then you should put as much as you can into that because it's a privilege to have a job, nobody owes you a living

Wompa1

El_Dangeroso wrote: »

Primal instincts my left tit.

In no way is it 'primal' to leave mother on her own to complete every task in the care of a new born.

In the pygmy society of the Aka tribe fathers play a massive role in infant care, in fact the women go to hunt while the men look after the babies!

This stupid idea of the caveman provider is just 1950's historical revisionism.

Another interesting thing about hunter gatherer societies is that they 'work' ie expend energy for sustenance or shelter for an average of 16 hours a week. The rest of the time they socialise and play with their children.

I wonder if Mr. O'Leary is so interested in getting back to our primal roots, will he institute a 16 hour week on full pay?

Where did he say every aspect? He just said changing nappies.

I said Primal, he didn't, he said biological. Biologically we are capable of working more than 16 hours

I'm with you. I just said he has a point. I want my paternity leave! I expect to be a very involved father.

At the same time, I also expect if things go south with me and the mother and we separate, she will get the kids because 'biologically' a child needs it's mother for nurturing. In the eyes of the court that's seemingly more paramount than having a father as the primary care giver, unless the mother is a crack addict

Wompa1

LadyLabyrinth wrote: »

While I don't agree with a lot of what he says he did one interview years ago that was inspiring/ stuck with me - and that was if you are lucky enough to have a job and healthy enough to do it then you should put as much as you can into that because it's a privilege to have a job, nobody owes you a living

It's a privilege in the world we have created, for sure. This world where we work for companies who pay us less than 1% an hour of what they make every 5 minutes. Where poor qualities in a person in any social settings are seen as positive and worthy of a managerial post in the business world e.g. stubbornness, narcism, dishonesty etc. Where you get a tiny fraction of their revenue and then give a huge chunk of that to other people, much wealthier than you, who have never worked an honest days work in their lives, just for them to decide what they want to do with it. They typically work on the 'oul one for you, three for me method of skimming off the top.

When somebody like O'Leary say's that, it's him trying to vindicate his unfair expectations on his staff and others around the world who are 'worker bee's' in general. As though we should mindlessly accept ****ty jobs for ****ty pay and take ****ty treatment. The thing is, he can't fly the planes, he wouldn't be able to handle doing the work of the cabin crew. If everyone collectively in the world had the backbone to revolt against these types of bosses, things could be better for us all. But we won't...sure some might stick up for themselves, but they'll be fired and replaced by somebody who is willing to take the crap because after all, a job is a privilege.

After 16 years of continuous employment and sucking sh!t for large multi-nationals, crooked not for profits and small nationwide companies, I'm a little disenfranchised

osarusan

Hey O'Leary, you don't want to stay home and spend time with your kids, fine.

but extrapolating, from your feelings, some universal comment on fathers and their relationship with babies - go f**k yourself.

Femme_Fatale

Lol at people who see this as genuine rather than what it is: being provocative for publicity.

O'Leary wrote:

This bonding stuff is rubbish... Men tend to bond with their children when they are walking, talking, following football, then we have something to say to them... The fathers who feign interest at that stage are just making it up.

Yep. It's stupidity not to be able to see what he's doing.

Most women if given the choice would actually stop working when they have young children

Wonder why most women seem to prefer to have a part-time job after having kids so...

BNMC wrote: »

Dead right.

The world is gone PC mad!

Could you explain how men wanting to take leave from work when their children are born has any relation whatsoever to political correctness, let alone political correctness "gone mad"? Cheers.

Fr_Dougal wrote: »

I'm sure the bastions of equal rights, the feminists, will be up in arms over O'Leary's comments.

Huh? Feminists would obviously be pissed off at a guy saying a woman's primary role is to stay at home and nurture and a man's primary role is to go out and work and not help out with the kids. Jeez, sometimes people here don't even know what they're giving out about anymore.
Paternity leave benefits both parents.