As a woman, I also feel the need to add that we don’t ALL like these “parties.” I find them creepy, annoying, and insulting.

ADVANCE HAPPY FATHER’S DAY!!!!!

Usually, I embrace criticism, particularly of my art and writing, as I’ve always felt I could learn from it.

Mindy’s comments were not valid criticisms, they were ignorant and stereotypical, no less offensive than if I were to visit a stay at home mom’s blog and, in a serious manner, say, “why are you whining about your tough day? You just sit on the couch and eat yo-yo’s all day while your husband works his ass off.”

I would certainly expect a response.

Typically, I ignore flamers, trolls and the like. And usually, I don’t launch into full blown explanations (or defenses) of my behavior because it’s just so damned tiresome to hear people explain themselves. In the end, who cares what I have to say or what Mindy has to say? It’s all so meaningless in the grand scheme. However, Mindy caught me in a snarky mood today and yeah, I bit.

As a regular reader of your blog, I know that you are the primary caregiver for your son and therefore that you don’t simply occasionally “watch” your son, but care for him much of the time. That being said, irregular readers may not know that, and the truth is that a lot of men do see what they do as “help” and do not take equal responsibility for housework or childcare and the phrasing, “could you watch…” is often used to ask husband’s to essentially babysit. A more neutral phrasing would be, “would you mind looking after him by yourself?”

You may want to take Dave Kellett’s (the brilliant comic artist behind the strip “Sheldon”) advice on dealing with critical comments, and that is to be polite no matter what they say. It always makes you look like the better person and it diffuses the situation.

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But since you seem like an expert in how a marriage should run. Please tell me how should I have written something that actually happened?

My wife said, “Can you watch E while I go to the party Saturday?” Was there some less horribly misogynistic way for me to write this?

And to respond to your assumption, no I don’t ask my wife to watch E every time I go out because I don’t really go anywhere and when I do, my wife and child or my child are usually with me. Interesting brush you try to paint me with, though.

It is understood that on the weekend, we pretty much spend our time with our son and each other. If one of us wants to do something solo, then yes, we would ask the other, “can you watch E?” There is no double standard in our marriage, it is one of equality. I’d love to hear how you handle such situations in your house, though.

Secondly, your assumptions about me continue to be off target because I don’t hunt or golf and I try to avoid buying tools whenever possible because it can only mean one thing – that I’m going to have to fix something.

To show what a nice guy I am, I’ll let your personal jabs at me stand and even the link back to your site where people can probably find some wonderful products. Say, do you sell can openers that actually work? Because the one I have now sucks.

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