Dad’s Don’t Babysit!

My family and I were at a Bossier City park this weekend trying to take advantage of the unusually dry and sunny conditions.  While kicking the soccer ball around with my 9-year old son was absolutely awesome, it was super cool to get our 6 week old baby out in the sunshine.  I was holding little Isabelle while my wife played with the boy when a mother, who was also there with her baby, asked me if I was babysitting.  I tried not to blast her, because as wrong as she is - she is far from the first person to ask me that.  I explained to her that I was her dad and not a babysitter.

Just so you know, this is plain wrong.  I was parenting just like she was, but the assumption is dad's just "watching" his own child until mom can get back and rescue the kid from fathers oafish clutches.  What did she think I was going to do?  Start up a craps game on the parking lot with the other dads and bet my baby?  I know that a dad somewhere has secured a diaper or two with duct tape, but that in no way makes us unqualified parents.  Also, babysitters generally get paid.