I saw a man with his three small children at the dentist's office. Wow. All by himself. These children were small too. We're talking diaper bags for two of them. One looked close to school age. It is rare that I see a man in a lobby with three that small. There are often dads with older children in the lobby, but rarely is there a man with diaper bags. Is this man interested in the oral health of his children? Is he part of a double income family who agree that each parent should take off work equal amounts of time to care for the children? Maybe his wife is sick. Maybe he is a widow. Maybe his wife is stuck in a meeting. Maybe his wife is stuck in traffic.

I have thought about this man a lot the last few days. His presence in the lobby definitely got me thinking. Jay is a good man. A very good man. He would gladly take all three of the children to the dentist if I asked him too. He has taken them to birthday parties before. Most recently, he took all three to the skating rink for a birthday party while I was on a church retreat. But. If he had his choice between going to work or taking the children to the dentist, I am fairly confident that he would choose work. I can say that he will definitely tell me what his choice would be after he reads this blog post. :)

What would your husband choose if the appointment was on a day when either one of you could go? Would he prefer to take sick children to the doctor or go to a meeting at work? Or, would you prefer to be the one sitting in a lobby catching diphtheria?

We live in a society where women and men are supposedly equals. Women are pushed to have a career, raise polite children, and in the South, do it all with your pearls on. My question is this...both of my parents worked...did that actually improve the quality of my life? Did eating chicken instead of ramen noodles actually improve the outcome of my childhood?