What's with all the daddy-bashing??

I had dinner the other night with some of the most amazing and funny bloggers on the planet right now, and one of the topics we discussed between our nachos and hummus and salmon was dad-bashing. We talked about Emma Watson's brilliant UN speech and Mike Cruise of Papa Does Preach mentioned an article from Aaron Gouveia from The Daddy Files about this topic. If you haven't seen either post, go now. I'll wait here. Just remember to come back.

We good? Good. Because I've got something add to this topic.

Stop it. It's old. It's way old, and it's not funny anymore. It's stupid.

I'm speaking only from my personal experience here, I don't know your situation, and frankly, I don't care to. I just know that my husband and many husbands like him are more than qualified to care for their own children. And the notion that dads are 'babysitting' their own children or 'playing mommy' while mom is not around, it's old school. Dads are mocked, questioned or lampooned daily if they show up at the playground or the doctor's office with their child/children. "Oh, mom must be shopping, you have mom duty, huh?" Stop with the stupid remarks!

It's amazing to me that my husband and I even HAVE a second child  because after 17 was born, we both worked, and we worked OPPOSITE shifts so that we didn't have to rely on someone else to raise our kids. That was our personal choice, and don't start writing the hate comments. Childcare is expensive, yo! And why would we both work and have someone else care for the kid when we could be banking that money for their education (or our own personal retirement, whatever)??

I worked until 5:00, he drove the kids in, met me at work, I took the kids home and he went into work at 5:30. We had overlapping days off so we did get to spend time together. And he was home with the kids all day. I never once felt like he was incapable of being a good dad. Yes, they went to the park. Yes, he'd take them on errands. Yes, he'd take them to doctor and dentist appointments and guess what! They LIVED!

I hate to see dads being mocked for doing what they do, being dads. It's ridiculous, and it's a stigma.  It worked for Danny Tanner, Uncle Joey and Uncle Jesse on Full House, it worked for Paul Reiser and Greg Evigan on My Two Dads, and it worked at Casa Snarkfest. It works in real life. So stop the bashing of dads who are just being dads. No special occasion, just being a dad. Is that so wrong?

My phone, the asshole...

Let me just start by telling you that my phone is an asshole. I'm not sugar coating it, the phone is an asshole. It's a monster, nearly indestructible. It's a Casio that sorta looks like a race car, with its own protective case. It's been dropped too many times to count, and KNOCK ON WOOD it has yet to break. But it's an asshole, nonetheless.

My phone, the asshole

Here's why: It restarts at the WORST. POSSIBLE. TIMES. Like seriously, life and death situations, it shits the bed. I was driving to a little Mexican place back in June. I had just picked up the adorable Kelly Fox from Foxy Wine Pocket, and along with my friend Mimzy from Showers in the Dark, we were heading to the Mexican place for a meetup with a bunch of other bloggers before we all headed to BlogU14. I had been instructed by the Waze GPS app on the monster Casio to make a right turn onto the tiniest street in the history of tiny streets. I went about 6 blocks on this tiny street and when I thought perhaps my Waze app had been smoking the crack pipe, I looked down at the phone, waiting to hear the next instruction. That's when I saw that my phone had restarted.

Are you fucking kidding me? Thank God I wasn't on a busy highway and possibly missed an exit. Eventually, the phone came back on, I brought up the Waze GPS app again and we were able to find the restaurant. "What awful luck!" I thought. Hope THAT shit never happens again.

Guess what.

I was driving to Arlington last night to meet up with some of my BlogU14 buddies for a mini-reunion, and fired up the Waze GPS app again on the old monster Casio. The longer I was on the road, the more I had to pee, until I thought I was going to end up peeing myself (should've worn my free sample of Depend, no lie). So I'm driving and driving and driving and the Waze app is telling me that I need to get off at the Shirlington Exit of I-395, and then make a right onto Campbell Ave. Easy enough. Except I did not see a sign for Campbell Ave. The sign said "Quincy Ave" NOT Campbell Ave. Not wanting to take my eyes off the road to check the map on the tiny GPS app I continued on, hoping that Campbell Ave was just around that next bend. I glanced quickly down Quincy Ave and saw the restaurant where we were scheduled to meet, but it was too late to turn. Apparently, that WAS Campbell Ave. It's just not MARKED Campbell Ave. I'll be calling the dumbasses responsible for that little faux pas.

At that point I had to pee like a freaking race horse, I've missed my turn and just up around that bend I mentioned was the entrance to get back on to I-395. The expletives that escaped from my mouth would make my mother wash my mouth out with soap.

The Waze app instructed me to get off at the next exit, which I did. I'm very good at following directions....when directions are actually being given. However, once I got off the exit, I heard nothing. Dead silence. I carefully looked quickly at the monster Casio for my next bit of direction, and it had, once again, restarted. I repeat, "ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME???" I am in Arlington. I have NOT ONE CLUE where I am, my bladder is full to overflowing, and my phone just shit the bed again.

Up ahead on the corner, I saw a BP station. Ah, sweet relief was now in sight. I figured I'd pull into the gas station, empty my screaming bladder while the monster Casio rebooted its damn self, and be back on the road in no time. Except when I got out of the car, I saw a sign on the front door of the gas station that said "Sorry, no public restrooms".

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes.

First those rat bastards have a blowout on their Deepwater Horizon rig, killing 11 people and basically killing the fishing and tourism industry for years in the Gulf of Mexico and NOW they don't have a public restroom when I need it most! Fuckers.

But, I digress.

I sat in the car until the monster Casio bitch rebooted and brought the GPS app back up and was instructed to make a right, then another right, and lo and behold, there was the garage of the place we were going to eat. As I carefully exited the car, I had to fight off two urges: one was the urge to pee myself, the other was the urge to go to the roof of the parking garage and throw the monster Casio off the roof to its death. But with my luck, I'd end up hitting an unsuspecting, innocent passerby on the street below.

To make a long story short (hahahahahahahahaha) I ended up being the first person there, which gave me plenty of time to pee and freshen up. I ended up having a really fun evening with Ashley from Big Top Family, Ashley from The Malleable Mom, Mike from Papa Does Preach, Jessica from Welcome to the Bundle and her lovely husband Shelby, who I'm convinced spent the evening playing footsie with Mike with their giant man feet.

A happy ending to a horrible GPS experience.