BBC 6分钟英语学习 为什么男人想当父亲？

English, from BBC, learning English. Hello, and welcome to Six Minute English.

I'm Catherine, and I'm nail now near.

You're a dad, aren't you? I hammer dad.

How did you know? Is it the gray hair in my beard?

Is it the wrinkles around the ice?

I thought that was just your age?

Well, yes, maybe. In today's program, we're going to be talking about fathers and

how being a father has changed over the years.

But before we hear more about this topic, our question for the day, according to recent research in the UK, what percentage of men are present when their children are born?

Is it A 55 %? B 75% or C 95 %?

What do you think? I think a lot of men these days like to see the children born.

Is not culturally inappropriate, so I'm gonna go for 95 %.

Well, we'll find out if you're right at the end of the program.

Now, doctor Anna Mackin is an evolutionary anthropologist.

She studies, among other things, how human behavior has changed and is changing.

She's written a book called The Life of Dad.

She's been studying new fathers, and spoke about her research on the bbc's Womans Hour program.

She asked why men want to become fathers.

She starts by saying that there are lots of reasons, but how many does she mention in her answer?

There's lots of different reasons why men want to be fathers.

For some of them, it's just the stage in life they've reached.

They've got the house, they've got the job, now it's time to have a family.

Sometimes they admit that actually they're not that keen, but they're partly wants a baby, so they're kind of going along with it.

And a reasonable number actually say they do it because they want to undo what their father did to them.

So rewrite history and relation to fathers in the experience of fathering to be a better father than their father was.

How many reasons does she mention?

She mentioned three reasons. The 1st was that it was that time in life the guys had a home and a job, and having children was the thing to do.

next. Another reason was that it was what their partners wanted, even if they weren't that keen themselves.

If you're not keen on something, it means you're not enthusiastic about it.

It's not really something you want to do.

But because it's what their partner wants, they agree to do it.

Or, as Doctor Mackin said, they're going along with it.

Yes, going along with something is a phrase that means agreeing to do something even though you don't really want to do it.

It's interesting that Doctor Muckin said that some men admit to this.

To admit to something is to say or agree that something's true, even if you're perhaps ashamed of it or you don't want it to be true.

There was one more reason she mentioned, and that was that some men become paren'ts because they want to be a better father than their own father had been.

Let's listen again. There's lots of different reasons why men want to be fathers.

For some of them, it's just the stage in life they've reached.

They've got the house, they've got the job, now it's time to have a family.

Sometimes they admit that actually they're not that keen, but they're partly wants a baby, so they're kind of going along with it.

And a reasonable number actually say they do it because they want to undo what their father did to them.

So rewrite history and relation to fathers in the experience of fathering to be a better father than their father was.

So what is it about some father's own dads that they didn't like his Doctor mackin again.

Well, in some cases, you know, the father would be neglectful.

Some fathers were absent, and others they just felt that they were very I suppose we'd say in 19 fifty's father so distant disciplin area, not actually involved in their child's daily life, and certainly not involved in their care.

So today's generation fathers, even in the ten years that I've been studying dads, we've seen a massive evolution in how hands on fathers are.

She talks there about some negative characteristics associated with dads in the past.

She suggests that some fathers didn't have a very close relationship with their sons.

They were absent, which means they weren't at home a lot and didn't spend time with their children.

Yes, and some fathers were seen as disciplinarian.

That describes someone whose main communication with their children was to give them strict rules and tell them off or punish them if they do something wrong.

These days, according to Doctor Mackin, fathers are much more hands on.

This phrase means they are much more involved with their children and share bringing up their children with their partners.

I'm talking of sharing, neil. Come on, it's time to tell me the answer to today's question.

Yes, indeed, according to recent research in the UK, what is the percentage of fathers who are there when their children are born?

Was it 55 %, 75% or 95 %?

And I said a very optimistic 95 %?

Being optimistic is good, obviously, because you are correct.

Yea. That's fantastic. And now for something else fantastic.

Our review of today's vocabulary. We started off with admit to for when you say something's true, even if it might make you look a little bit bad.

And before we go on, I have to admit, neil, that it was me

who ate your biscuit, or which one?

The one you left on the desk?

Ah, that's all right. I wasn't really keen on it anyway.

It had been on the floor.

Yeah, well, serves you, right? And to be keen on something is our next phrase, meaning being very interested in and enthusiastic about something.

Then we had to go along with something.

This is when you agree to do something, even if you're not keen on it.

An absent father is one who is not at home to spend time with his children.

And some fathers are disciplinarians. They have strict rules, and they give up punishments.

But these days, more fathers are hands on, which means that they are very much involved in looking after and bringing up their children.

Well, that's all we have time for today.

Join us again next time. And remember, you can find us on Instagram, facebook, twitter, youtube, and of course, our website, BBC learning english dot com.

See you soon. Goodbye, bye.

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