.......to get angry at people when they talk about dh 'babysitting'???

[staceym11]

Hang on a minute, are they not his kids too? did he not have part in making them? is he not just as capable as me of looking after them (ok maybe that ones a no )? should i not equally be able to have a life with him looking after his children not babysitting them?!?!?!

YANBU. I think it's extremely demeaning to the partner in question. Before DS was born, DH was a SAHD and used to get this all the time, and it always really upset him...

Pre having a child myself, a male colleague said he was 'babysitting' that night, so I asked whose children he was looking after....when he said they were his own, I laughed and said how can you babysit your own kids?

DH and I both use the term 'babysitting' if one or the other is purposefully staying in so that the other can go out, I babysit for him, he babysits for me. Its no big deal for us.

I say it very tongue in cheek. If I am visiting my sister and we want to go to pub, I say my DH is babysitting but if my DH wants to go to pub with BIL, I say I am babysitting even though we aren't really. I don't think it's anything to get worked up about really in the grand scheme of things

There's no need to get so het up about it. It's just a phrase. DH and I both use the term "baby-sitting". It doesn't bother me at all. Generally speaking someone will ask "who's baby-sitting the kids". If DH is at home I will say DH. I don't particularly feel the need to correct them on the terminology used. That would just be pedantic. There are more important things in life to worry about.