Is dad babysitting or parenting????

**nikniknik** · 16-02-2010 15:39

Hi,

Came across this article and thought it was very interesting - mostly the comments posted after the article more than the article itself!

What do you all think?

http://blogs.news.com.au/naughtycorn..._the_kids/P20/

**waterlily** · 16-02-2010 16:07

Strange! My DF is a wonderful father and I leave DD with him alot while I get some "me time"
I personally think a father offers a completely different and very important relationship with their children.

I would never have considered having a child with someone I didn't think could look after them without my "supervision".

**The sooper nanny** · 16-02-2010 16:16

i found this very interesting. My Dh has been looking after DD since she was 4 months when I did the odd shift. I am lucky because he works from home so we share the parenting between us.

I do know a few women who would not for the life of them trust their DHs with their children. I think thats so sad. I love the fact that my DH gets time with DD, hes her dad. And she loves him, as he does her.

**Love is all you need** · 16-02-2010 16:21

Originally Posted by waterlily

Strange! My DF is a wonderful father and I leave DD with him alot while I get some "me time"
I personally think a father offers a completely different and very important relationship with their children.

I would never have considered having a child with someone I didn't think could look after them without my "supervision".

It's definitely parenting I want DD to grow up with an active dad in her life so that means he takes her out by himself and it's not babysitting for me.

I expect him to with help out in every aspect of her upbringing and the decisions which go along with it!

However I do woman who do not see it this way and you can tell that their OH gets disgruntled because they feel left out of the parenting process and it comes to a point where all the men feel like they are doing is babysitting.

**missie_mack** · 16-02-2010 16:27

If my husband wasn't capable of caring for a child he wouldn't have become a father.
I think its bizarre that mothers refuse to leave their children with their father.

I also think its weird that when a father looks after his own child some consider it babysitting.... if looking after your own child is babysitting I am seriously owed some money from someone somewhere

***babygirl*** · 16-02-2010 16:30

It is most definitely parenting here! I don't even stop to let him know where we are 'up to' in the routine because I know he will do the absolute best by her no matter what

he takes a very active role in her day to day life! Parenting with him is more structured than it is with me and DD really responds to him like that

**Fuchsia!** · 16-02-2010 16:31

I don't trust my ex, he is pretty hopeless, sure he would get the job done, but would he do a good job? Nope.

Its a constant worry when the kids are with him, and i mean constant worry.

**1+1=5** · 16-02-2010 16:53

DH has been looking after his own children (not babysitting) since they were born. I was at uni two full days a week when Noah was 4 weeks old and he was more settled with DH than he was with me.
he gets very annoyed when people say "oh its nice of you to babysit them"

16-02-2010 17:12

I didn't in the beginning, didn't trust him

Now I do, now I trust jasper to scream the bleeding house down if he's not fed, changed, or put to bed at an appropriate time.

**bookwormmum** · 16-02-2010 17:22

This kind of thing causes a lot of arguments in our house - in DD's whole year of life DF has never once been at home all day or night with her on his own. On the incredibly rare occassion that I do go out, maybe 3 times since she's been born, he takes her out with family, so he always has help... It sh!ts me to tears. Sometimes it really feels like I'm a single parent and he just lives with us

How do you get through to these men??