Since my wife has a 9-5 (or 8-8) job, I’m the one in the carpool lane, at the doctor’s office, and often in the basement office volunteering for some school function. Some of it I complain about since driving kids around town for playdates does seem like very underpaid taxi work, but it all does have the advantage of providing more time with the kids and insights into their lives.
This week, it was time for the annual pre-school coffee and organizing event. In the past, I’ve been the only dad present and had a lot of fawning women telling me how much they appreciated that I showed up. This time, however, no fewer than three other dads were there. Two of us came alone and two were there with their wives. The objective of the event was to get us all to sign up to volunteer for various school events, including “Mom’s cooking,”"Moms’ night out” and “Dads reading day.” There were some nods towards the sexist nature of the project titles, but mostly appreciation that, once again, dads don’t always think like moms. Moms need an excuse like a “moms night out” to pull the plug and stake territory on an evening without the kids. Dads either don’t want to plan things that way (like I want to go out and spend the evening drinking and talking about childcare), or would rather stay at home watching TV or playing on the computer if they have a night off. Dads, we are told, are somehow more treasured as readers at the school, perhaps because it’s still a bigger event for dad to actually be at the school. Despite changing work patterns and dual incomes, in our neighborhood at least, it’s still more moms than dads hanging around the school for drop-off and pick-up. I signed up for “mom’s cooking” just to break through another barrier. If they let me in, I’ll give the full report.
Tags: School and activities