Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Innocuous questions that make me crazy (# 1)

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'Is your husband babysitting?' 


IT'S CALLED PARENTING.  

Seriously. In two years no one has asked Nye if his wife is 'babysitting'. Because when I look after the kids it's just being a parent, when he does it it's a fucking novelty*. It drives me nuts.


*To them, not Nye. Hour for hour he probably looks after W&P more than I do.

*image by Jamie Street, aka Desert Fete.

17 comments:

  1. wanna know something crazy? i think you guys introduced me to the idea of co-parenting. and i thought i was so liberal. thanks for that though.

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  2. Ugh. Why is everyone terrible?

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  3. Hmm. My husband is our son's main carer (he is self-employed, part time) and my Mum still keeps asking when he's going to get a 'proper job'. Aaaaaargh.

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  4. It ain't babysitting when IT'S YOUR OWN KID(S).

    Oh, right, that's what you just said.

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  5. Makes me insane. Add to that I work, my husband stays home. No, he's not babysitting, SAHD is his freaking full time job. Am I soooo lucky to ahve a dad who is willing to babysit? I'm soooo lucky for so many reasons...but damn if that's not one of them. We both work our butts off.

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  6. so so true. I hate it when friends have to ask if their male partners can 'babysit' so we can have dinner - surely when it's your kids it is just called 'being at home'?

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  7. couldn't have said it better. I'd have used more swear words.

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  8. Ooh yes, or if your partner has the children for a day someone will say "Isn't he good?".

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  9. I don't even *have* children and that question drives me crazy. Is it really that much harder to ask if (other parent) is watching the kids?

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  10. That's ludicrous! What is wrong with people? My husband has a huge role in our daughter's life.

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  11. A former colleague used to complain if he had to "babysit" his daughter and couldn't stay for a beer at the end of the day. Eventually one evening I asked him why it was babysitting? Surely, it's just being a dad? He didn't really have much of an anwer.

    He was bit of a dick.

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  12. I agree with Jean. People would always say to me - 'You're so lucky to have such a helpful husband!' Pah! He was so damn lucky to have ME!

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play nice.