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SERENA'S Hubby Speaks Out

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SERENA'S Hubby Speaks Out

Post by Grossefavourite » Aug Thu 15, 2019 11:48 am

Serena Williams’ Husband Alexis Ohanian Advocates for Paternity Leave, Recounts Her Pregnancy Scare

Alexis Ohanian wouldn’t trade his paternity leave for the world!

The 36-year-old businessman and founder of Reddit opened up in a new personal essay for The New York Times about his decision to take his 16 weeks of leave when he and wife, Serena Williams, welcomed their 1-year-old daughter, Olympia, in September 2017.

“Nothing could have dragged me away from my wife and daughter in those hours, days and weeks -- and I’m grateful that I was never forced to choose between my family and my job,” he wrote.

Noting that Williams faced “near-fatal complications” during Olympia’s birth, Ohanian expressed how important his time off was to their family.

“Serena spent days in recovery fighting for her life against pulmonary embolisms. When we came home with our baby girl, Serena had a hole in her abdomen that needed bandage changes daily,” he recalled of the tennis pro who had an emergency C-section. “She was on medication. She couldn’t walk.”

Ohanian noted that his time with Olympia early on made him more sure of himself as a parent.

“Spending a big chunk of time with Olympia when she was a newborn gave me confidence that I could figure this whole parenting thing out,” he wrote. “As an only child with no cousins, I didn’t grow up around babies; in fact, I had never held one until my daughter was born. At first, holding her terrified me. I am a giant and she’s so tiny… What if I break her? I didn’t -- which was encouraging -- and then I learned how to calm her crying, rock her to sleep and handle her toddler years with grace.”

He also insisted that the traditional gender roles in their household had been erased thanks to his paternity leave.

“Taking leave also set me off on the right foot for sharing parental responsibilities,” he said. “Two years later, there is no stigma in our house about me changing diapers, feeding Olympia, doing her hair or anything else I might need to do in a pinch.”

Ohanian is speaking out in order to promote more fathers taking paternity leave. In the essay, he acknowledges that a lot of families don’t have the “privilege” of having so much or any time off, noting the U.S. is “the only industrialized country that doesn’t mandate some form of paid family leave.” He added that even when dads are given paternity leave, they don’t always feel comfortable taking it.

“Men are conditioned to be breadwinners, exclusively -- and another mouth to feed calls for more bread on the table (to say nothing of college tuition) -- so off to work we go,” he wrote. “I get that not every father has the flexibility to take leave without the fear that doing so could negatively impact his career. But my message to these guys is simple: Taking leave pays off, and it’s continued to pay dividends for me two years later.”

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Re: SERENA'S Hubby Speaks Out

Post by djmm1962 » Aug Fri 16, 2019 6:38 am

He's learning how to do Olympia's hair :P

I thought FMLA was passed in the 1990s, so why is it getting so much attention now (or was that just NJ)??

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Re: SERENA'S Hubby Speaks Out

Post by djmm1962 » Aug Fri 16, 2019 6:41 am

Paid FMLA in NJ!!

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Re: SERENA'S Hubby Speaks Out

Post by Grossefavourite » Aug Fri 16, 2019 8:29 am

Aren't men the best hairdressers anyway? Plus, I once overheard a male hairdresser in a restaurant telling his friends that no one, including Black women, can do Black hair like this 'White boy.' I couldn't stop laughing.

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Re: SERENA'S Hubby Speaks Out

Post by djmm1962 » Aug Fri 16, 2019 9:58 am

LOL!!

My hairdresser is a gay male. He took over when his grandmother passed away. I knew him before he was born!!

They do hair the best!!

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Re: SERENA'S Hubby Speaks Out

Post by Grossefavourite » Aug Tue 27, 2019 11:47 am

Good Husband Alexis Ohanian Trolls Maria Sharapova With D.A.R.E. Shirt After Serena Williams's 6-1, 6-1 Win

https://deadspin.com/good-husband-alexi ... 1837615800

As Serena Williams easily drubbed Maria Sharapova in their first-round U.S. Open match last night, she got to be magnanimous in victory, applauding one of Sharapova’s few winners in the second set and then telling the on-court interviewer post-match that facing Sharapova was an “incredibly tough draw” because she is “such a good player.” Meanwhile, Serena’s husband, Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian, wasn’t going to waste the opportunity to get in one last jab.

When the match ended, Ohanian stood and unbuttoned his jacket to reveal he was wearing a D.A.R.E. (to say no to drugs) t-shirt, which harkens to Sharapova’s 15-month suspension from tennis for taking the banned substance meldonium. The subtle troll was extremely Reddit.

The match was perfunctory. Serena won 56 points to Sharapova’s 28; hit five aces to Sharapova’s one; and zinged 16 winners while Sharapova had six. Sharapova hit 20 unforced errors to Serena’s 12. Though Sharapova had five chances to break serve, she converted none of them. There was never a moment of real drama, and Serena now owns their career head-to-head 20-2.

Still, the lopsided match was hotly anticipated thanks to the long history of juicy beef between them.

And now that Ohanian managed to get a little nibble, the beef roasts on.

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