“Amazing and Awful”: Serena Williams’ Husband Alexis Ohanian on Parenting Olympia and Importance of Paternity Leaves

On 1st September 2017, Serena Williams and Alexis Ohanian welcomed their first baby girl. The co-founder of Reddit and the professional tennis player named their child Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr., also known as “Olympia.” In a recent Instagram post, Alexis Ohanian shared his experience of when Williams gave birth to Olympia. He also talked about how parenting her has been.

Ohanian also raised awareness about the importance of paternity leave for fathers. According to him, fathers have a momentous role during the birth of their children.

Alexis Ohanian shares his special experience

In a recent Instagram post, Alexis Ohanian talked about the subject of paternity leaves, something that the American has regularly endorsed. Serena Williams‘ husband feels dads have a very crucial role to play during a child’s birth.

He said, “When you welcome a new child in your life, it really is a special time. And it thrills me to see how many dads are stepping up to that responsibility and are excited by it. You should be able to have time to spend with them and know there’s going to a job waiting for you. And there’s still going to be revenue coming into your household.”

The co-founder of Reddit was shocked to know the percentage of Americans who still don’t have access to paternity leaves. He quoted, “That was when it clicked for me and I realized ‘My God’, I have every advantage imaginable and I have the leave policy, right? And I still, I’m horrified at the number of Americans that don’t have access to it.”

Alexis talked about the complications that his wife, Serena, went through after giving birth to Olympia. Due to the medical complications, there were serious concerns about Serena’s health. Alexis empathized with people who might have to go through something similar without having job-security and parenting leave to fall back on.

At that moment, he became passionate and engaged with the issue and decided that he would advocate for comprehensive parental leave policies.

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Serena Williams’ husband raises a notable point

While talking on paternity leaves, Ohanian further stated, “And right now, we’re seeing it easier than ever for dads to be able to connect over these things. I think what more and more of us are realizing is like ‘oh yeah’ this is like, this is at times a really amazing experience, sometimes it’s a really awful experience but this is a shared responsibility that we get to have. And there’s a whole other level of bonding that comes out of it too.”

Alexis Ohanian is planning a trip to Washington DC to bring up this topic amongst more and more Americans. According to him, as he has got a platform, he’d like to contribute to this vital topic.

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