[LJI Exhibit A: Week 3] Angry Feminist Bitch Calls Shenanigans on Jerkface Young Man

[cheshire23]

[Warning: domestic violence]

I'm angry. Really angry.

This wasn't what I thought I was going to write about, and I wish I wasn't writing it.

But here it is:

A young woman who is very dear to me just walked out on her boyfriend of several years, with their baby in tow.

And, as is so often the case when this sort of thing happens, and has been

Comments

[mari4212]

My mother's biggest pet peeve is hearing a father say that he's babysitting the children. Because you'd never hear a mom say that she's babysitting her own child. Babysitting is when someone who does not normally have any responsibility to that child (beyond being a decent human being to other human beings) is asked to watch that child, normally while receiving compensation for said actions.

Her point is that a father watching his child is being a parent, always, not a babysitter. We demean fathers and fatherhood when we act like they do not have responsibility for their children, and when we praise them for doing the bare minimum of child-rearing. Your husband does a fantastic job being a loving parent to your children. It's just a shame that we think what he's doing is more than is expected.

[alien_writings]

Oh man, I hate the "babysitting" meme with the POWER OF A THOUSAND BURNING SUNS. I'm not a parent myself, but my dad has done it in reference to my much-younger half-sister, and I have called him out on it because...no, just, no.

[cheshire23]

I know, right? That's just...gross.

[cheshire23]

The "rockstar" part is really that he is my back-up brain ALL THE TIME and does a whole lot of background stuff - remembering to keep my electronics charged and in good repair, keeping the household calendar, dealing with random "business-type" phone calls that cause me ridiculous anxiety, picking up my meds for me (thankfully I'm not on any of the controlled-substance ADHD meds) - so I look like I have my shit together far more than I do. And also that he can laugh and be silly with the kids at points when I am all "brain overloaded, cannot cope with noise and bouncy people in my space, deal with plz????" (That this particular mental state is even A Thing Ever causes a lot of self-hate, too, but he's really awesome and reassuring about it. Hence, "rockstar" still stands.)

[tigrkittn]

Ohhhh, that drives me NUTS!! Fathers by definition can not "babysit" their own children!