<p>^which is why I told S’14 not to wade through flood waters. Could be rats in there.</p>
<p>It sounds scary. Wind picking up, trees tossing back and forth. Plus the non-stop rain. I didn’t think NY was in a hurricane zone. I thought the worst we’d ever experience is attitude from the people at Starbucks.</p>
<p>Dad is actually a colleague (or someone who works for me), and I needed him to do work from home. We had to tell our clients that he wouldn’t be available this afternoon because he was stuck with the babysitting duty. If the wife was home, he could have gotten on line from time to time, but now he is completely off line.</p>
<p>bethievt - you should relax a bit.</p>
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<p>Thank you. I’m really bothered by the idea that fathers taking care of their own children are “babysitting.” I think “being a parent” is a better way of putting it!</p>
<p>Nothing much happening up here in Washington Heights overlooking the Hudson, beyond noisy wind. I think the GW Bridge might be shut down, because I can see it out my window and there don’t seem to be any cars on it that don’t have flashing red lights. The River has high waves with whitecaps, but it doesn’t look like it’s come onshore.</p>
<p>I think bethie’s point is that when it’s a dad with his own kids, it’s not babysitting. It’s parenting.</p>
<p>I think bethievt’s point is that taking care of one’s own children is not babysitting. It’s parenting.</p>
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Yes, the wife would have been “stuck.” As 2 working parents, they had a full time sitter. Due to the weather, sitter couldn’t show up. Two of them were trying to work from home while taking care of their kids.</p>
<p>Except the dad also had a job to do. His wife didn’t have any more right to work than he did. We decided to support his wife’s higher calling. Other people in our company had to step up to do his work. People really gotta get a grip here.</p>
<p>“babysitting” vs “parenting,” really people? Every parent in the NE is babysitting right now. They are just making sure their kids are not going crazy being stuck at home for days.</p>
<p>Right. That’s still not babysitting.</p>
<p>But thanks for the grip advice…</p>
<p>^^^always love your posts because you are always so PC.</p>
<p>I woudln’t want to disappoint you! :)</p>
<p>Oldfort what do you think parenting is?!</p>
<p>Nope, I know the type.</p>
<p>parenting >>babysitting - commitment to be there for the most mundane stuff.</p>
<p>Sue22 - are you going tell me what parenting is after I have raised 2 girls? Really?</p>
<p>What type do you know? I just think both parents are parents. Maybe they should get two separate sets of sitters.</p>
<p>Sandy is officially a “post-tropical storm” and has converted to a “winter storm” according to the NWS. She came ashore with 85 MPH winds, the eye is almost completely covering NJ, the worst is typically behind the eye and to the north of the eye so NYC is getting it about as bad as it can.</p>
<p>I didn’t get the feeling from the way that oldfort used the word babysitting that it was like a mom would be parenting, but dad is babysitting way. In fact, I have a feeling that if the wife worked for oldfort and the husband had been called away to fix an emergency crane problem, oldfort might easily have said “mom got stuck with babysitting duty.” And I read the original post to be kind of tongue-in-cheek.</p>
<p>ETA – now my post times are getting messed up – this should be 8:08 and post # 476.</p>
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If they did, how would either sitter get into NYC to work today? “Scotty, beam me up”?</p>
<p>Sounds like a family dynamic problem that spilled over to labor - management. Perhaps a backup for the babysitter should have been arranged - there was fairly ample warning about Sandy.</p>
<p>One nice thing about being stuck at work, mostly alone, is that I can clean up a lot of relatively small tasks without getting interrupted.</p>
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<p>My son’s apartment building complex has online bulletin areas for residents that are looking to sell things or buy things including services. There are many families that live in the apartment building and I would think that there would be teenagers that may be interested in babysitting. It’s really something that managers shouldn’t have to deal with - if the employee says that they are available to work and are expected to work, then they should work out the arrangements for childcare.</p>
<p>That might be with friends, relatives or trusted neighbors or some service from your network.</p>
<p>I just heard that they’re evacuating Stuyvesant Town. I have a friend who grew up there whose elderly father still lives there, and hope he’s with her tonight.</p>