More young adults (18-34) live with parents.

[jsglow]

Yeah, twice a week my wife works late so I pick up the kid, do all the typical parent stuff for a 6 month old, cook dinner(sometimes poorly), and generally keep the place from burning down until the wife comes home. I love it, good chance to bond with the kid and it's important to me(not sure why at this point) that he sees that there isn't stuff that daddy does and mommy does but stuff that his parents do.

Has been a bit eye opening in the outside world how baked in the gender roles still are though. The wife had to work one Saturday so I was flying solo with the child and didn't have much planned so asked her to give me a list of stuff we needed for a grocery/Target run. Me and the kid are tooling around in Target picking up stuff, he's getting the usual attention because he's adorable. At some point a woman in her 40s I would guess comes up and wants to make faces at him, etc then turns to me and casually says "oh it's really nice that your wife let you out with him". I just stood there for a moment and finally said "yeah I know especially how I sometimes forget to breath and all" then walked away. Look I get that my wife is capable of a lot more than me generally and a better person specifically but it just annoyed me to no end the implication that somehow being a dad predetermines that you are somehow less capable of taking care of a kid than the mom is.

Good story eng.  When our kids were little chick worked on Saturday morning so every week it was dad's morning.  Great times.  Loved it.  That quickly morphed into Saturday morning sports for the entire family by grade school that extended all the way until they went to MU.  Absolutely nothing better than seeing your daughter win her swimming heat or your son kick the winning goal.

[mu03eng]

I know, right?  The thing is, a lot of Dads say that, too, as in "No I can't come over and drink beer in your garage.  I am babysitting the kids."

IT'S NOT BABYSITTING IF YOU ARE WATCHING YOUR OWN CHILDREN!!

I've already gotten the "oh so who's watching the kid" question a number of times when I've said something about the wife having an event or having to work or whatever. Good times.

[MerrittsMustache]

I've already gotten the "oh so who's watching the kid" question a number of times when I've said something about the wife having an event or having to work or whatever. Good times.

I get that one a lot too. I usually respond with, "Eh, I'm sure they'll be fine by themselves."

A couple others...

- My kids have Field Day at school on Friday and one of the "room moms" just sent out a reminder about it and added: "If any moms are around that day, you're welcome to stop by to watch the games!" Apparently dads aren't welcome.

- My wife and I flex our hours at work - I go in early while she handles mornings, then she gets home later while I handle early evenings. As a result, I cook dinner most nights. It amazes me how many people seemed completely baffled by this concept or make jokes about how we must order pizza a lot. I usually just smile, but want to say is "Actually, I'm a f-ing adult so I'm fully capable of cooking a meal."

[brandx]

 And, the parking lot mafia at school gave Catholicism a very bad reputation due to their mean-spirited gossip,

They are everywhere.

I described them with the term "the committee of 'Oh My God'". From a David Baerwald song, if I recall correctly.

[CTWarrior]

I get that one a lot too. I usually respond with, "Eh, I'm sure they'll be fine by themselves."

A couple others...

- My kids have Field Day at school on Friday and one of the "room moms" just sent out a reminder about it and added: "...

My wife is a Speech/Language Pathologist for the Public school system in a neighboring city.  So while she gets a ton of days off, she doesn't have the flexibility of when those days come like I do.  So when there was a field day where parental involvement was required I would take a vacation day and help out and run an event or two.  I also chaperoned field trips when he was asked to supply a parent for that duty.  Doing that sort of stuff was fun for me.  I don't recall and event where I wasn't the only dad, but I also don't remember any wise-crack comments from the other Moms.

[ChitownSpaceForRent]

I'm (hopefully) a ways off of kids myself but my mom never stayed at home but didn't sent me to day care either. I think it was a combination of my aunt or a family friend watching me until I went to some sort of pre-k at the YMCA. Both of my parents are teachers as well so i never needed after school care. Don't think I turned out any worse for it.

[GGGG]

When my wife used to travel more for work, she would be gone a weekend or so every other month.  I loved those weekends.  I'd order in pizza, buy some ice cream and rent some goofy 80s movie that I knew they'd like.  Maybe get a six pack of some good beer and get buzzed up while playing video games with them.  It really was awesome.

And my wife never cooks when I travel either. 

[jsglow]

I'm (hopefully) a ways off of kids myself but my mom never stayed at home but didn't sent me to day care either. I think it was a combination of my aunt or a family friend watching me until I went to some sort of pre-k at the YMCA. Both of my parents are teachers as well so i never needed after school care. Don't think I turned out any worse for it.

We'll be the judge of that young Chitown.