Gender Roles

Somehow Bridges and I have fallen into pretty traditional gender roles around the house. I often feel that I should do more of the handy stuff, because it would set a good example for the girls. It's not that I'm not capable of changing batteries, it's just that I'd rather leave it for Bridges to do. Honestly, he seems to enjoy the handy type of work more than I do, although perhaps I'm just telling myself that.

But I realize that we're sending our children a pretty strong message when Lee tells me that we have to wait for Daddy to get home to fix this or that.

Today we were busy moving into our new closets (yes, we are almost through with construction), and I found a picture of an elephant that I proceeded to hang in the girls' bathroom. The next time Clara was in the bathroom, she saw the picture.

"Mommy, I like that picture of the elephant. Who put it there?"

"I did, Clara."

"All by yourself?"

She stared at me intently and then said "Without a g....?". She was about to say "without a grown-up?" which is a phrase she uses when she does something all by herself, but she cut herself short when she realized I was indeed a grown-up.

Instead, she paused, and then said "Without a Daddy grown-up?"