Everyone has a different perception of stepparents, and most notable is the horrible stories shared about stepmothers and how they tend to treat children that are not biologically theirs.
It is common in the media, as well as in several Disney films, to portray stepmothers in an evil aspect that is distinctive from stepfathers.
Like many people, Olive Najjuma, the co-presenter of The Fatboy Show, agreed that stepdads make better parents than stepmums.
“Many children suffer at the hands of stepparents, but I think there are more bad stepmothers than dads,” said Olive.
In her argument, Olive said that since mothers traditionally spend the most time with children moulding and nurturing them, sometimes they treat stepchildren differently or worse than stepfathers.
“The reason men are better stepfathers is that a woman could be staying with her kids raising them the way she wants, and the man only chips in for the financial bit or sometimes not. Whereas a stepdad could be nonchalant, just letting the kids stay around without being directly involved in their lives. So people will say he is a good stepfather, but when he detached from the children,” she explained.
James Onen believed the same was true, saying most stepdads are usually non-involved in the business of their stepchildren and thus usually viewed as better parents.
A caller on the show named Sheila thought good step-parenting depends on the character of the person rather than the gender.
“We can not say that fathers make better stepparents than women. It is just that society has made it so. Most cases of bad step-parenting are women because those men are usually not reported. If a person has a good character and understands that it is not the kids' fault, they were born into the situations they are in, then they will not mind raising them as their own,” she said.
The Fatboy show is hosted by James Onen aka Fatboy, Olive, and Sarah every weekday from 6 am to 10 am on RX Radio.