Can a Father Babysit His Own Kids?
Question:
Can a husband call it “babysitting” when he’s watching his own children?
Give us your take in the comments.
Related post: Marriage Advice–When Your Wife Says You Won’t be in Trouble
Question:
Can a husband call it “babysitting” when he’s watching his own children?
Give us your take in the comments.
Related post: Marriage Advice–When Your Wife Says You Won’t be in Trouble
26 Responses to “Can a Father Babysit His Own Kids?”
he better not. i guess he can if he is getting paid, so then that’s cool if a husband likes to put himself in competition for the job with the 13 year old girls of america.
By chelsea on May 30, 2008
Hmm. Good question. I would also say no, though it all depends on what the term means, where the wife has gone, and how short an answer the guy wants to give.
To say “Yeah, I took the day off to watch my kids so that my wife could go out with her girlfriends to the mall” is a whole lot longer for a guy to say than “I was babysitting.”
‘Course that doesn’t sound too manly either.
Count my vote as a no. Babysitting implies watching someone else’s children. So he can’t Babysit his own kids.
By MInTheGap on May 30, 2008
No
By Cass on May 30, 2008
Darn! I guess I’ll have to change the post title “Dad the Babysitter” on my family blog. Shoot! It was a nice short title too.
By Jim O'Donnell on May 30, 2008
It’s a no for me too. You can’t babysit your own kids. You are just being a parent.
Webster definition: to care for children usually during a short absence of the parents; broadly : to give care
By Shannon on May 30, 2008
Dads, You Cannot “Babysit” Your Own Children
Associated Content
By Frugal Dad, published May 04, 2007
Most males are biologically equipped to father children. However, being biologically equipped to reproduce and being equipped to be a great dad are two different things. Too many males out there (I refuse to refer to them as men) are letting their wives, girlfriends or significant others raise their kids solo. They feel the “child-raising” duties should be left to the mother while they go out and “earn a living.” This ridiculous line of thinking is prevalent in households with full-time moms. Unappreciative husbands go about their day expecting their wives to handle everything inside the house, including raising their children.
Now, I don’t pretend to be an expert on child-raising. My wife and I have two kids, and over the last couple years I’ve coached a couple dozen kids in youth soccer. There is one universal truth these experiences have taught me: kids need their dads. My former brother-in-law (emphasis on “former”) remarked to me one time that his wife was going out with a friend and he was going to have to “baby-sit” his son. This concept was foreign to me. How can one baby-sit their own child? If he meant taking care of the child, feeding him dinner, bathing him and putting him safely to bed…well, that’s called PARENTING when done for one of your own. Websters defines the term “baby-sit” as taking “charge of a child while the parents are temporarily away.” It should not be used by dads to describe their duties on a “girls night out.” After that conversation I’ve been surprised to hear how many guys use that term. If someone asks me if I am babysitting tonight, I always correct them by responding, “No, I am parenting.” They might think it is just semantics, but it is much more than that. It is a way of thinking that unfortunately too many males just don’t practice.
By Shannon on May 30, 2008
I agree – it’s not babysitting if you’re watching your own kids.
By Sandy on May 30, 2008
Yes, it can be called babysitting. It doesn’t have to be paid. If the oldest child of the family watches the younger ones, it’s called babysitting, paid or not.
By Vatermann on May 30, 2008
it’s called being a PARENT, not babysitting!!! my mother in law made a comment that she felt sorry for my husband because i left him for an afternoon with the kids and she told me i needed to give him a break since he had been babysitting all afternoon. you should have seen me bristle! poor guy! how could he be expected to be with his own kids without any supervision?!?!? as a parent you do have an obligation to watch/spend time with your kids. don’t get me started…i could go on and on.
By jen on May 30, 2008
Jen, if my Mother-in-Law had said that to me I would have set her real straight on that and that she can keep opinions like that to herself.
No wonder so many men turn out to be spoiled brats when their Mom’s put those kinds of ideas in their heads.
The ones that drive me nuts too are the Dads that come home from work that have stay-at-home wives and expect to do nothing all night long because “they worked all day” As if the Mom just sat around and read a book or went to the movies and the kids took care of themselves.
By Shannon on May 30, 2008
My husband used to say it all the time, and it annoyed me terribly! So, I would say a dad can call it babysitting if he doesn’t care what his wife thinks!!
By Jane on May 31, 2008
If the question is can a dad babysit his own children I will say yes…because it is all about his mindset. If he chooses to call the time he spends alone with his own children “babysitting” then sure…he can babysit. Is Dad detached enough from him children that he seriously considers the time he takes to be alone with his children as such a burden that he feels like its merely babysitting? Some dads are…which really stinks. Now if the question is: Should a father be so detached from his own children and the responsibilities of being a parent that he calls the alone time he spends with his kids babysitting? The answer is a resounding NO!!! Come on…be men…be fathers…not babysitters.
By Leslie on May 31, 2008
ROFLOL. NO!!! It’s called PARENTING!!!!
By Lightening on May 31, 2008
I don’t think it can be called babysitting if someone is looking after their own children.
But if my husband would just watch the children occasionally so I could have a free hour here and there, I wouldn’t mind what he calls it!!
By Catherine on Jun 1, 2008
NO! That is his job too!
By Christie on Jun 1, 2008
Catherine, a group of us got into that kind of discussion the other day…they were saying how they never got free time or a bath because the kids always needed them and I was like WHERE is their Dad???
I think if a woman has a husband that doesn’t put equal effort into the kids and can’t watch them for a couple hours while she has her own time, she’s set it up that way by tolerating it from the beginning. If I was that woman and my husband tried to pull that s—, I’d just load up my things in the truck and say I’ll be back in a couple hours, watch the kids. What is he going to do, leave them alone? No. And if he pulled a fit about that, the next time it would be overnight. Whatever it took for him to get the message about what is and what isn’t okay. Women need to get a backbone. It doesn’t set a good example for kids at all to see an overstressed Mom that does everything for them and a Dad sitting on the couch eating chips with his hands down his pants while he watches TV.
By Shannon on Jun 1, 2008
No, it is not called babysitting. It is called high-risk behavior. Leaving children alone with their father is very dangerous. That is where ideas like playing ball in the house, adding chocolate syrup to everything, and hiding messes under beds come from. A lot of times mothers will come home to find children(and sometimes dad) sprawled out in various places around the house due to exhaustion from trying to do all the things dad doesn’t know are against the rules. It ranks slightly lower than grandparenting on the risk scale. Surprisingly, many wives are willing to take the risk for a few hours to themselves.
p.s. Shannon strikes fear in me, but brings up the question: How does one eat chips with their hands down their pants?
By Mr. Mustachio on Jun 2, 2008
when i get home from a grueling days work and my wife says i’m going out with friends, i of course wouldn’t dream of calling a babysitter to sit with my kids while i’m at home, that would be awkward. I do however feel that since i am taking the responsibilities of the babysitter it is only fair to be paid as a babysitter so i give myself a nice little hourly rate. so i guess since i am doing what a babysitter does and getting paid for it i am babysitting.
By phillyz on Jun 3, 2008
Umm, No. Watching your own child is not babysitting, from a technical standpoint. It says a lot about the type of man who describes caring for his own children in the absence of his wife as “babysitting,” if he means it in the sense that he must give temporary supervision until the real caretaker gets there. Yeah, you could use the term to simplify a conversation, but that’s kind of weak sauce.
I’m with Shannon though, in that women can be enablers of men who shirk their parenting duties. The seeds of that attitude are probably somewhat evident before you have kids with him in the first place — so be careful who you marry!
By Traci G. on Jun 3, 2008
My EX used to call it that. Big emphasis on EX!
No, you can not babysit your own children.
Linda~
By Linda~ on Jun 4, 2008
Can my wife call it babysitting when she watches our children? I am with them more and rarely go out. By definition, if you are sitting with a baby, yours or someone else’s, you are babysitting. I don’t care if you are the husband or the wife.
By TMS on Jun 4, 2008
NO! It is not babysitting when I watch the kids it is not babysitting it is caring for our children, or being a mother! When he is with the kids he is being their father!
By Amanda on Jun 6, 2008
NO
By Laurie on Jun 7, 2008
Though I’m sure I really shouldn’t post anything, I feel like maybe the reason the dad often refers to it as “babysitting” is because he doesn’t usually watch the kids. I think that’s when you use the term: when you’re watching kids you don’t usually have primary care for. “No one does it like momma” sort of concept.
By a husband on Jun 7, 2008
definitely not… if your wife being a mother is not babysitting then surely a husband being a father can’t be either…
By bella on Jun 8, 2008
When the oldest child, or any child for that matter, watches the younger children, you can call THAT babysitting. Because they are not the parents. Wouldn’t you find it odd if a mother said to one of her friends that she had to go home and “babysit” her children after they get home from school? How weird.
By Cass on Jun 13, 2008