Why Dads Don't Babysit

Parenting or raising children by definition includes both parents as equal partners. Both parents are parenting what means spending quality time with their children, take care for their physical and psychological well-being, teach them what is right and what is wrong, etc. For that reason dads don't babysit their own children but they parent, like mothers.

The expression which many dads still like to use probably has its origin in history when raising children and looking after them was predominantly left over to women. That does not mean that men were not interested in their children. However, in the times when all important decisions in family were taken solely by men it did not even crossed their minds to stay at home so that their wives could spend some time alone. Men today still like to think they are in charge of everything and to say that a man is the head of the family. However, things have changed a lot in the previous century including the parenting style which foresees equal participation of both parents in raising children, while "trousers" in many families today are worn by women. Men are well aware of changes that occurred in the roles of the genders in society and family as well as in parenting. Thus men saying "I have to babysit" when looking after one's own children usually does not have a pejorative meaning although it can be also interpreted as "I am forced to do my wife's job while she is away because she made me to".