So my birthday was yesterday, which, like every year sends shivers through me wondering where time has gone (I honestly still feel like college wasn’t that long ago - in reality its been over 10). Since "age-day" was on a weekday this year I thought it would be fun to take the day off of work and do something mellow. So I took my daughter to the Getty here in L.A. for a day of culture, reflection, sketching, and meandering. It turned out to be a pretty interesting experience since I’ve never actually spent an entire day with my daughter somewhere without my wife. My wife can get her to do things I can't, like eat vegetables or change her diaper like a pit stop operator. Then there's the restroom issue, but thankfully they have this cool thing now called a "family restroom" which was a lifesaver. She was really quite good in her stroller while in the galleries, I was a little paranoid that she wouldn't be so quiet, but she's very inquisitive about people and her surroundings.
But the interesting thing about the whole day was the question I got from people in one form or another -"where's mommy?". I usually made some lighthearted joke about it and moved on. Although after some thought, it really is depressing that most dads aren't expected or normally don't spend a day with their kids - or maybe its just dads with an infant and/or toddler. Even afterwards telling people about it, I still get an odd reaction like I breastfeed from a man-boob or something strange like that. I can just imagine what kind of reactions stay-at-home dads get in public. Maybe they just slap people with their man-boob bra for asking stupid questions.
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