Dad Has Unexpected Reaction To His Wife Asking Him To 'Babysit' Their Daughter So She Can Get Her Nails Done
His indignation at the idea of being a babysitter instead of a parent is something all dads should emulate.
Konstantin Postumitenko / Prostock-studio / Canva Pro We've all seen gazillions of them online and probably know quite a few in real life: men who act like they're being asked to climb Everest any time their wives ask them to watch the kids — or who get a huge round of applause any time they do it without complaining.
But things went very differently when one mom on TikTok asked her husband for a hand, and it's left many moms applauding.
The dad had an unexpected reaction when his wife asked him to babysit their young daughter.
It's a common double standard we've seen in marriages for ages — when mom does the childcare, it's called parenting, but when dad does it, it's called babysitting.
This is absurd, of course, as well as unfair. It assumes that the dad somehow has less responsibility for the kids and traffics in all those old sexist tropes about "women's work" vs. "men's work." Understandably, it makes a lot of moms really angry.
Recently a trend began on TikTok in which moms would ask their husbands to "babysit" to see how they react to the word, as a way to sort of gauge whether they view their role as dads as egalitarian or something that's only their job some of the time.
So mom and TikToker Julie decided to try it on her husband Corey — and he was not having it in the best possible way.
The dad was not only confused but also bristled at the very notion that taking care of his kid was 'babysitting.'
"I have to go somewhere on Friday," Julie said to her husband. "Can you babysit for me?" Corey seemed instantly confused, side-eyeing her and asking, "babysit?"
When Julie repeated the question, Corey was even more confused, asking, "Who?" He seemed to think his wife meant babysit the neighbor's kids or something. Corey then became almost downright annoyed.
"Why are you saying babysit?... I'll watch her. I'll WATCH our child. What are you talking about? You don't call it babysitting your kid!" The more Julie seemed unsure about the whole thing, the more emphatic Corey became, telling her to "just go!" get her nails done — not because he was angry but because he clearly thought the premise was ridiculous.
"I mean, I'll hang out with her; she's my daughter! … But no, I can't babysit," he said with a laugh. "I'm not babysitting."
People applauded Julie's husband and felt that he was a model for how all dads should be.
"I love how offended he was 😂," one mom wrote. "Bro is like, 'It’s called parenting,'" another wrote. "GREEN FLAGS EVERYWHERE," one user effusively cheered.
Others suggested Julie send the video to other dads on social media who are less enthusiastic about sharing the parenting weight, and many felt that his outright confusion at the very idea of "babysitting" your own child was a model all dads should follow.
That's definitely good advice because studies show that even in more egalitarian households, women bear a disproportionate burden when it comes to child-rearing.
A 2023 Pew Research study found that, on average, men spend more time working their paid jobs each week than women — an average of 3.5 hours more — but that extra job work is more than offset by working mothers' share of the domestic labor.
Working moms spend an average of 3.2 more hours a week caregiving and 2.9 more hours doing housework than their husbands. Oh, and their husbands average 4.3 more hours of leisure time each week, too. This even holds true when women make more money than their husbands.
It's perhaps no wonder then that women initiate divorces more often than men, and lawyers and therapists have said in recent years they've seen surging divorce cases because of these unequal workloads.
So yeah, Julie and Corey — and all the other dads on TikTok who were similarly confused by the notion of "babysitting" their own kids — are definitely onto something.
Here's hoping they inspire more fathers to shift their perception of what being a dad is. Not only their wives but also their kids will thank them for it.
John Sundholm is a news and entertainment writer who covers pop culture, social justice, and human interest topics.