Ok, time for a rant…
I’m beginning to think dads are slowly becoming more baby sensitive, which is leaving me in two minds. Does that mean we’ll go the whole hog and start crying at rom coms whilst petting ‘cute’ puppies?
Or does it just mean that we are wising up to the world around us and breaking into a cultural shift where the realisation that ‘dads have babies too’ is creeping in!
I read a blogpost recently about stupid things people say to dads. I was hit by it because I saw plenty of truth in what I was reading. I too had experienced people saying ridiculous things to me. Things like:
“looks like dad dressed the baby” and “are you babysitting?
There is in fact a campaign called,
Dads don’t babysit
Hundreds of dads are joining up and expressing to the world their discontent with the perception around dads looking after their children.
Well… I have some things I’d like to say…
Firstly, I’ll admit to having a wardrobe entirely filled by my wife. I reach my hand in each morning and pull something off a hanger knowing it will look pretty good. There’s no thought needed when getting dressed each day. Whatever two/three items I pull out will be fine.
However, when it comes to dressing my son, I am faced with a world of options. His wardrobe is full of colour, patterns, all in ones, the list is endless. It took a while, but over the past seven months I think I’ve mastered the skill of dressing him very well.
I dress my baby for the weather, not London’s fashion week! The difference is; my baby is always fit for the weather and looks good. If London Fashion Week was rained off or invaded by a blizzard, Ted would survive! Kind of like Bear Grylls.
As far as I can tell, most of the celebrity fashion gurus are men!
Who goes round judging what a baby looks like, anyway? Does it really look bad on parents if your baby’s wearing something from last season? Or colours that traditionally ‘don’t go’? Pfft!
And the second thing, most important thing, is that DAD’S DON’T BABYSIT! It is impossible to babysit your own kids. Actually impossible! When a mum is out with her kids, no-one in their right mind would suggest that she is babysitting. Yet throw it round to dads and all we ever do is apparently ‘babysit’.
Since when did looking after your own kids become babysitting? This non-sense must stop. We must take a stand and declare such sayings and the people that use them as idiotic, to put it mildly.
Some dads even say that they’re babysitting themselves because it’s become so accepted. It’s not acceptable. When Ted and I are together, I’m parenting. I’m his dad, not his babysitter.
Rant over…
And….. breathe…
