Be good for your mom this summer...

Kevin, the boys, and I were out to dinner last night. Our waiter was relatively young (18-19ish, although he looked like he was 14). He was very chitty chatty with the boys. He joked with them, and our smart aleck boys joked right back with the waiter (something I don't think he was expecting). But, hey, a life time of sarcasm and ribbing from their dad has prepared them to retort any barbs thrown their way, without so much as batting the proverbial lash (which in Liam's case are long, and thick, and gorgeous, and the envy of many women...but I digress).

Anyway, as Kevin paid the bill, the waiter said to our boys, "Be good for your mom this summer, kids!"

WHA?

I mean, are chauvinistic stereotypes still rooted that deep that in this, the year TWO THOUSAND AND NINE, that even this next generation of young people ASSume the mother is always the primary child care provider?

Kevin quietly replied to the young waiter, "And be good for Dad." Then we both just looked at each other knowingly and privately chuckled at how completely off the mark this young waiter was.

Now that Kev is home all of the time, and basically a SAHD for the time being, he does 99.9% of the child rearing...meals, baths, homework (before school was out), bedtime, daytime, applying sunscreen, making the kids clean their room, purchasing birthday presents for friends...pretty much all of it.

But even before Kevin got laid off, we shared our parenting duties pretty much 50/50, and, to be honest, possibly even 60/40 leaning in Kev's direction.

Is sharing the child-rearing really that uncommon in today's day and age? I mean, haven't dads around the nation started to pick up the slack of father figures in generations past? Don't they WANT to?

Kevin LOVES caring for the kids (even though he wants to strangle them - understandably - from time to time).

This seems SO normal to me. If this is abnormal, it shouldn't be....and clearly, I don't realize just how lucky I am.