The Cold Shoulder: It's Not (Just) a Guy Thing

Time Out New York Kids' advice columnist this month takes on one of the biggest at-home dad bugaboos:

DEAR ANTONIA:I’m a stay-at-home dad with a four-year-old daughter. Every time I ask one of her friends’ moms to drop her kid off at our place, I’m turned down. Is it because I’m a guy?

This is probably the most often-heard specific complaint from at-home dads, so I was curious as to how a presumably professional advice columnist (and woman) would handle it. As it turns out, Antonia thinks it probably has little to do with the usual assumptions and more to do with the fact that we're all jittery around parents we don't know: "But I’ll let you in on a secret: Women do it to each other, too. Distrust of other parents isn’t gender specific."

I'm inclined to think this way, too -- that guys tend not to get the cold shoulder at the playground because they're guys, but for some other reason. But I'm happy to take dissenting views in the comments.