Justice

A Bunch of Dads Just Revealed the Quietly Sexist Everyday Comments People Say to Them

June 3rd 2016

Just in time for Father's Day, a new video reveals some of the quietly sexist remarks people make to fathers on a regular basis.

These dads have had enough of it.

Crazy Sh*t People Say To DadsMake It Work YouTube - youtube.com

The clip, which was produced by advocacy group, Make It Work, opens with one dad saying that he is subjected to unfair comments from a broad range of people, including his own family.

For example, he has been told that he is not "equipped to be doing what a woman is supposed to do." That comment is limiting to both fathers and mothers and fuels the idea that each parent is solely responsible for certain tasks.

Another dad reveals that he was shamed at work for asking to take the day off to help his sick child.

In response to this request, the man was reportedly told: "So let me get this straight. You want to take off because your kid is sick? Let me guess. You must be on mommy duty today."

This comment assumes that only mothers can handle specific aspects of parenting and that dads are useless in this regard.

Another father revealed that someone said it was "awesome" that he had paternity leave because that means "a couple extra weeks at home just chilling." Parental leave, however, is hardly a time of repose for both mothers and fathers.

It often comes with a lack of sleep and personal time.

Crazy Sh*t People Say To DadsMake It Work YouTube - youtube.com

Finally, one dad said that he receives rude stares from others when he drops off his daughter at school, as if people are judging him for doing something for his daughter instead of being at work.

All of these notions fuel a harmful stereotype that fathers are the "lesser" parent.

Earlier this year, ATTN: wrote about a photo of a shirt the sparked conversation on Reddit by confronting this very idea. The shirt fights back against the argument that dads are "babysitting" when they watch their own kids.

Dad babysitting shirtReddit - reddit.com

One Reddit commenter wrote that this shirt hit close to home because even his own female relatives used to call him a "babysitter" for taking care of his daughter while his wife worked:

"It hurt really bad when I was a new, stay-at-home, dad and people would say or ask about me babysitting. My wife's job had 70% travel and she's going back to school for her masters, and we were in a new city with no family and only a couple friends, so I was 'on' 24/7. I didn't go out when she came home, she came home to do homework. I was with my daughter all day, every day. I became super territorial of her. I was the main parent. Then some fuckers (even my grandma) would ask about me, 'babysitting.' It really made me almost cry sometimes because it was like they couldn't see me as a caretaker."

Watch the full Make It Work video tomorrow:

RELATED: What Happened When This Dad Played 'Mom' for a Day

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