Adam Page Proves Parental Leave is Cowboy Sh*t

Adam Page. Photo by Mike Kalasnik from Fort Mill, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Anxious Millennial Cowboy

Early Saturday morning, I awoke to find Twitter abuzz about a news story concerning new parents taking parental leave. Queue the outrage machine. Apparently, it is now the position of many (of the all too familiar) talking heads from the right that dads have almost no role to play after the birth of a child other than going back to work. I won’t go into much more detail here, since our Andrew Donaldson already wrote a piece that I was largely nodding my head too.

Fast forward to Saturday night. All Elite Wrestling live in Miami saw “Hangman” Adam Page cut this generation’s “Hard Times” promo.

The story arc of Adam Page is essentially, he is an anxious millennial cowboy.  Anxious, because his generation grew up in a post 9/11 world, saw their parents struggle through the Great Recession, entered the job market as Covid-19 spread the world, and were  saddled with student loans and increasing housing unaffordability (because we just don’t build enough).  Millennial because that is his generation. Cowboy, because of its archetype , a hero facing long odds, hard days, and an uncertain future.

Adam Page spoke about his upcoming title shot in a 5 minute promo worth watching. At 2 minutes and 45 seconds, he waded into the controversy of the day, addressing his own absence in quite real terms, stating that in the midst of his highest popularity, “to turn around and go back home to be there for the birth of a beautiful baby boy, that’s cowboy sh*t.” Professional wrestling is at its greatest when the lines between reality and kayfabe blur, we get lost in the story and react as if it was real, because it is.

Or as I wrote this morning:

I do not think there has ever been a professional wrestling story with so much depth, nuance, and time for development as the story arc of "Hangman" Adam Page. I think he might be the most relatable to his generation protagonist professional wrestling has ever had.

— Jericho_Hill 📈🏘🏍👨‍💻🕺 (@Motoconomist) October 17, 2021

Anxious Gen-X Dad

My daughter was born a little over 3 years ago. She is, by far, the most precious and important thing in my life. Her first few weeks were memorable, even the smelly diapers. I was so glad to have the ability to take significant time off, not just to help change her diapers and do the grocery runs so my tired wife could nap. This time meant I was present from day one in the coo-coos and first rolls and crawls and smiles through today where we end our night with “Papa Story Time” and a mutual sharing of “I love you.”  I do not begrudge the choice of other fathers to return to work to ensure a steady paycheck and life’s necessities. I also would never chastise parents who wanted to spend time with their newborns.

Thankfully, there were rational voices from conservative commentators, though these came from folks with much less media reach.  At least they’re out there. It is telling as an American society that we’ve created a false choice between work and family when it comes to newborns.  The United States is the ONLY country amongst “developed” economies  without a parental leave mandate. Over half of countries on this list, however, only mandate leave for mothers. Both parents should have option. Adam Page did. Pete Buttigieg did. I am sure glad I did.