It’s funny that men say “we’re pregnant” but then say “I’m babysitting”.
Count me in if you two are still going to beat this man. After that, could you help me with mine? Sounds exactly like mine, but I’m still there. :rolleyes
To answer the OP, if it’s your own, it’s parenting, if it’s someone else’s, it’s babysitting…etc.
China Guy, I’m sure you don’t really think of it as babysitting, but I have never heard a woman say this, only men (and most of the ones I’ve heard say it do think of it as babysitting) .I mostly hear women say " Gotta run, my husband’s going out tonight" Avoids both the awkward “parent duty” and “babysitting”
I once spent about twenty minutes driving my great-aunts out of their minds at a baby shower. The kept asking who’s babysitting. I said no one. They finally asked me if my husband was home with them. I said yes. “Aha ,he’s babysitting” “Is it babysitting if I’m home with them?” “No, you’re the mother” “Well, he’s the father” Then they did the same thing with my sister They still don’t understand.
Never been an issue in our house – it’s parenting not babysitting but if I looked after my partner’s daughter, it did feel like babysitting. We didn’t have custody and I didn’t have a particularly warm relationship with her.
I dunno that I ever referred to it as babysitting but I never felt like I was parenting her. If I had actually gotten on OK with her and we had a custodial relationship, then, no I don’t think I would have felt it was a babysitting type experience.
My older kids babysit the younger ones.
My husband keeps the babies, just like I do when he’s gone.
I figure, if you’re there at conception, babysitting is pretty much out of the question. 
[sub]Of course, I don’t buy that whole “We’re pregnant” thing either…[/sub]
karol
Umm, ya, I guess I don’t think of it as baby sitting. I think of it as being on watch or active duty or something along those lines. Whoever gets passed the responsibility for my daughter had better take good care of her. Dunno, feels awkward to say I am parenting tonight. I mean, parenting is a 24/7 calling not just when it is one-on-one.
To clarify, in China, even the fancy hotels, you don’t find changing rooms in the public restrooms (although I have seen them at the international airport). I do not mean to say that people make a habit of changing babies on the dining table, usually it would be on a chair and most parents bring along a changing cloth. Still, I do not see the problem of a diaper and baby wipes and a quick change. I would be willing to bet that in the US not publicly changing your baby has a lot more to do with bystanders being offended rather than sanitation issues. My point was perhaps poorly illustrated, but in China it is a lot more acceptable for little kids to act like kids and the general population is pretty encouraging of that.
Of course it is not babysitting to be with your kids.
When we leave the kids home alone, the eldest is “in charge.”
She does not get paid unless she had a conflicting opportunity to babysit outside of the home.
My husband is the primary care giver of our son. Yes, he is a “stay at home dad.” I quickly correct anyone that refers to him as the babysitter or Mr. Mom. (If he’s Mr. Mom, does that mean I am Mrs. Dad? :eek:)
Where I come from we say, “Watching the kids.”
You don’t want to offend the young ones, you know.
“Dad, I’m not a baby any more!”
I’m a stay at home mom and I do 90% of the parenting. Not that Leifsdad isn’t willing. He does a million things my father would never have done, like change poopy diapers and get up in the middle of the night. He even relieves me for a night on the town occasionally. I’ve always felt like I was a burden to my father, financially, time-wise, he always seem to rather be doing something else, or couldn’t be bothered to begin with. That isn’t going to happen in my family.
China guy is public breast feeding acceptable? This is something I resent in the States. Why is it taboo to feed my hungry child?!
this is something that I have to agree on. To crib from Judge Judy? or like her in a parenting book that I’ve never read (no interest or time) " Parenting by Proxy"
Not only is breast feeding in public perfectly acceptable, it is also the way that probably 90% of Chinese babies get fed.
I would hazard the guess that maybe you have just started noticing this trend. It is certainly not something new. Doonesbury made fun of this trend IIRC back in the 1970s
Where do you live that this is taboo? About the only people I have met in recent years that say it is taboo are extremely religious people who call it sexual perversion.
Several of the women from the church I used to frequent always thought it was great that my husband (now ex) would babysit. I’d always point out that he wasn’t babysitting, he was watching his own kids–but I wished he would babysit because the extra cash would be nice 
I have to say there are some women (although, admittedly I’m not one of them), who perpetuate this in the way they treat their husbands. When my ex and I had kids, our children were our responsibility (and still are). Neither one of us was the sole expert on how to change diapers, bathe or care for the baby, it was something we both did and tried to share equally. Unfortunately, you don’t always know going in how you and your partner are going to be as parents–that can be a real eye opening experience!
Unfortunately, the reality that most breastfeeding women face is a bit different than you might expect. Everybody says “breast is best,” but breastfeeding women soon find out that lots of people think it is gross or should be kept strictly private. Any woman who breastfeeds in public, even those who do it quite discreetly, will get nasty comments and horrified stares. Even some doctors and other medical professionals are not entirely comfortable with breasfeeding, recommending “supplementation,” etc. A lot of women start breastfeeding with very high expectations, because throughout their pregnancies, everyone touted breastfeeding. They often become discouraged when they are discouraged in subtle and not-so-subtle ways to use a bottle instead.
It’s funny how people can subtly make things more difficult for parents who do things a bit differently than they do. Telling a breastfeeding mother “can’t you do that in the bathroom?” is one way. Insisting that a male taking care of a child is “babysitting” is another.
Argh. Make the last sentence of the first paragraph read “They often become discouraged when they are encouraged in subtle and not-so-subtle ways to use a bottle instead.”
As far as you KNOW…
Thank you Green Bean. This is so true. Even in one of the most liberal places in the country (Boulder, CO) people moved away from me and gave ugly stares. FTR, I’m very discrete. No one sees anything.
No changing table in the men’s room is a pain. No changing table is awful. I hate chaning my kid on the floor of the bathroom. Yuck, I hate walking the floor in public bathrooms half the time!
Drat, I ment to say that No changing table in the men’s room is a pain, no changing table at all is awful.