A Father is NOT a Babysitter

 A Father is a PARENT.

Let me start by saying I am not a mother. My husband and I don't have kids and have decided not to. However, I am a feminist and can identify when things are not equal between a woman and a man. 

Why is it that when a mother stays home with the kids, she's taking care of them, but when a father stays home with the kids, he's simply "babysitting" them? 

​I hear this all the time in TV shows and movies and, in turn, have heard it in real life.

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​Merriam-Webster Definition

babysit, verb
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/babysit​

1: to care for children usually during a short absence of the parents
​broadly : to give care

Fathers are not babysitters. Babysitters watch the kids for a determined amount of time and then leave when the parents come home. By calling fathers babysitters, it implies that mothers provide full-time care, and fathers only take care of the kids when the mother is not home. 

By calling fathers babysitters, it implies that they have no responsibility for the kids when the mother is around. It's not co-parenting; it's "you're the parent, and I'm only here to help when you need me." This put the onus solely on the mother. The kid gets sick, and the mother takes care of them. The kid has to be dropped off or picked up from school, and the mother does it. The father only helps when the mother asks. This is what calling fathers a babysitter implies.

Now, as I mentioned, I am not a mother. We are not parents. So, my hope is that the dynamics between mothers and fathers are better than this. That it is, in fact, co-parenting. I just wish people would stop saying that the father is "babysitting" the kids. That is not what he is doing.