We walk the walk up in he-ah!

That's right, we don't just pay lip service to equal rights in MY house, oh no.  Here, girls take out garbage and boys do laundry.  It all just depends on what needs doing and which kid is closest to me.  I'm hoping this will make them self-sufficient (read and NOT living with me when they're 30) in the future.

We had another opportunity lately to prove our commitment to equality when we put a male babysitter into our regular rotation.  We've got some FABULOUS girly babysitters we lucked into, but they're all seniors in high school, are very involved in their activities, and have become increasing unavailable.  I needed to do something, because I had a function to attend with Brownie, leaving Cubby at home.  I found out an older brother of Brownie's friend was staying home for college, so I contacted him for a boy's night.  It turned out so great, we put him into the regular rotation.

As I said, he's got a younger sister exactly Brownie's age, so he's used to younger girls too.  He showed up at our house, much to Cubby's delight.  He'd had enough of our very nice, but very girly-centered, female babysitters.  All had a wonderful time, and so did we.

The REALLY funny part, though, happened the next day.  As I do whenever we have a babysitter, I asked what they did, if they had fun, and I slip in some questions about phone use and such.  Brownie's alternate name is "The Informer" and she's about as good at intel as the CIA.  During this conversation, Brownie said "Mom, do you think Babysitter is cute?"  Hmm.  How to proceed?  Do I say "no" and get into a long conversation about "why not?" or do I say "yes" and get myself into a bigger mess?  I went with "yes, just like I think you're cute and Cubby is cute and Dog Bone is cute."  Tragedy averted (I thought).  Her response?  "Yeaaaaaaah, but did you SEE the muscles on Babysitter?!  Dad doesn't have muscles like THAT!"

Those crickets you hear?  They were chirping while I imagined myself in another ten years forcibly dragging my beautiful daughter out of a bar while a man a decade older than she tries to ply her with alcohol.  I've really got to get into better shape, because I don't think I'm going to survive her adolescence.