So I’m strolling into the school yesterday as all the buses are arriving back from the MCG Sports Museum tour. I had volunteered to go, as I do with most excursions (except those involving animals, yawn) but didn’t give it a second thought when I hadn’t heard back from the school. Off go the kids and, from what I can see, a few dads and one mum helper. Unspiritually, this is what I thought:
“Geezus, I volunteer to do canteen duty, classroom help, Father’s Day stall, athletics carnivals and when something actually right up my alley appears a DAD gets chosen to go???” Sexism much? Or just a case of purely getting his name picked out of a hat? Who knows and I happily state I’ve not researched this one bit! Ahem.
So even further unspiritually I think “Where are these dads when I’m freezing my arse off at athletics carnivals (well, I may spot two or three amongst 25-30 females)? Where are these dads for canteen duty (not spotted one EVER)? Classroom help (I’ve seen one perhaps once, or did I just dream that)? Where are they for the, quite frankly, tedious, unsexy bits? Where?”
Nup, they volunteer for the good stuff and because they’re not around the school much, they get the good gigs, like a trip to the MCG Sports Museum which I gather is the domain of the male. When I put it out there on Twitter, one male teacher (who’s a dad) responded “It’s the MCG, a very good reason why dads would suddenly volunteer”. Good for them.
When I put my spiritual hat back on, I get it that it’s nice for the kids to have their dad around and it’s great for the dads to get some time off work to do something fun with their kids. But if they’re going to take the time off to do something for their kid, how about a little canteen duty or classroom help? It’s tedious, but dads your kids would love you being around, their little faces light up! There’s nothing better than that. Except when they’re asleep in bed.
Lisa blogs at Jumbled Thoughts from a Jumbled Mind
