Gender Expectations

So I took a vacation day last week to take Alyssa to a mid-day orthodontist appointment.

I have a spouse who works from home.

Let that sink in.

I work outside the home. I have a place I have to do every single day, Monday through Friday, from 8am to 4:30pm and my spouse works at home, no timecards to fill out, no boss to check in with, no limited vacation days to schedule.

I will say that I wanted to be at that appointment. I wanted to be there for Alyssa. But I work about six blocks from the orthodontist’s office. I could have met A and T there, spend the thirteen minutes they spent on her teeth with her and then come back to work, having missed all of forty-five minutes.

Instead I missed an entire day.

My spouse, whom I do love very much, never once suggested that I not take the day off work. He never suggested that he bring her to town and then take her to school.

I truly believe that if our genders were reversed, there is no way in hell the husband would have been expected to take an entire day off work to take a child to an appointment of any kind.

Just saying.

I actually have no point here, just putting this out there because, well, I feel like it needs to be said.

I’m not really even bitching about my husband so much as saying that I think the expectations on mothers/wives today are still outrageous and outdated.