Before becoming a parent, my weekends were pretty free. I can sleep as long as I want, marathon watch Law & Order: SVUdrinking with friends during the day, curling up and reading a book. It doesn’t matter because no one relies on me. Now, as a mom of two, ball games, rehearsals, and my kids’ increasingly regimented social lives get in the way of everything I want to do. That’s good: I signed up for the whole “mom” gig, but TikTok user Samantha (@thenyblonde) seems to have discovered a loophole. What’s the gain? It doesn’t seem to be for everyone.
Samantha, a mother of two living in New York City, usually posts about fashion, but in a recent post she knew it might be controversial, she talked about some Questions that had been bothering her.
“Over the past few weeks, I’ve noticed that a lot of husbands/partners have been absent from their children’s birthday parties, play dates, and any kind of weekend event,” she observed. “I always ask, ‘Where is so-and-so,’ and the answer is always, ‘Oh, there’s a game going on.’ … I just think it’s so crazy that we’ve normalized it, and it’s totally for parents No problem, especially since the husband wasn’t there because there was a game.
When she thought of a corollary for women – a specially timed televised event that would normally take them away from their weekend responsibilities – she didn’t think of any.
“I wish I could,” she continued. “I wish I did have an excuse to say ‘I’m going to quit on Saturday because there’s something going on on TV that I can’t miss at a very specific given time, which is usually right in the middle of the day.’ All children’s activities or all responsibilities.
In fact, according to Statista, 68% of American men watched at least two hours of football per week last year, with 21% watching six hours or more. As she points out, considering many of these games take place in the middle of a Saturday or Sunday, it’s a form of parenting that many people miss out on… and that’s just one sport among many.
Despite her concerns that it was a controversial statement, commenters were quick to agree and express sympathy.
“Imagine a woman telling her husband”housewife is on, so I can’t. Please take our children,” one of them mused.
“People act like sports aren’t something you can watch on TV later,” scoffed another.
“My experience as a nanny in New York has taught me how few men are truly equal when it comes to raising children,” lamented a third.
But it’s not all bad news: the comments section is also filled with people who find the man either doesn’t care about football or realizes that raising children requires him to watch football later in the day.
One commenter highlighted the benefits of giving up the football season.
“My husband doesn’t care about football,” they wrote. “He told people he loved football season because the Costco in Alabama was empty on Saturdays.”
Honestly, even though being an equal partner in the household isn’t motivation enough, an empty Costco feels like a strong argument for watching the game later…
