Matt, a single father who just lost his wife unexpectedly hours after she delivered their beautiful baby girl, Maddy. Now Matt has to decide how to raise his little girl while struggling to juggle things in his life.
A heartwarming and funny story. Two-parent livelihood is hard, but single parent is much more! I can't imagine the chaos… but the supports are amazing! Both main characters played well, with the colors of the supporting characters.
First time parent, alone, most would feel hopeless, exhausted, and maybe even try to just give up. But every child is their parents' strength. I love that the movie showed the real life struggle and appease to the supports around Matt when he is having a hard time to raise Maddy. The family, the friends, the office. We learnt from this pandemic that work if flexible everywhere nowadays, and it gives him more space to be there for his daughter. Being a single parent also should not stop a parent to pause a moment and think about him/herself first. There's nothing wrong with it.
On another point, yes, there's always a double standard between single mother and single father. While a single mother is always expected to be good at being the primary caregiver to children since it is natural for them, we always have little expectation of a single father. Single mothers are always stigmatized if they are perceived as not capable when they are not able to provide enough, but due to little expectation on single fathers, when they just do one thing right, it is like something amazing.
On the other hand, due to little expectations on fathers to be single parents, support groups and forums also focus more on single mothers and neglected single fathers. The lack of resources to find this support for single fathers is saddening, but hey maybe it's time to change this mindset.
Either single mother or single father, both are the same. Both of them are their child's bad cop and good cop, both are their child's cheerleader, both are their child's everything. Importantly both need support equally from their social circle and the community.
For households with a complete nuclear family, please educate your children that there are children who might not have a complete family like yours, but they are never lesser than other children.