Women with Kids VS Men with Kids

After college, I, like so many others, did not know precisely what career path I wanted to choose. However, as I was living at home (temporarily!), jobless and with no idea of what I wanted to pursue, I needed to find a job, any job, ASAP. Therefore, I put my talents with kids to good use: I became a nanny.

I work for a wonderful family, one who is helping me jumpstart my career in my chosen path; however, I am still a 24 year-old watching a two year-old and attending mommy and me functions. The chances of being noticed by single men are slim to none.

This also presents an interesting – although not unpredictable – outcome. People immediately assume that I am the mother (I was once told that he had my eyes…the sad part, I didn’t know how to correct her). The thing is, I still look like I’m in my late teens – even when I dress nicely for a day out with him. I’m not complaining about looking young, but that would make me a teen mom, like 16 or 17 (a circumstance that is not for me). A hot mom, but a young one nonetheless.

Now, while most of the places I take him to are predominantly occupied by women, I do run into the occasional male specimen during my errands or, more frequently, on walks.

I’m not saying that it is highly likely to meet an interesting, attractive man on your lunch break; however, having the constant presence of a two year-old really diminishes your chances of chatting up the local coffee shop hottie.

I’ll get the occasional whistle or honk (which I’m not going to lie, kind of boosts my confidence), but there are few opportunities (that I am not aware of) to meet men or have them want to approach me.

However, if you look to movies and television shows (I know, not necessarily the most reliable source) kids with men function completely differently (picture the scene in “Life as We Know It” where Josh Duhamel is grocery shopping and Katherine Heigl, realizing that this is how he has been picking up women, observes from the sidelines – only to have him demonstrate his flirtatious wiles on her a moment later). For the most part, women tend to view a man with a little kid as cute (I am no exception) and might strike up a conversation with the guy (demonstrated in the film listed above). Regardless of the kids presence, if the guy is attractive and we want to introduce ourselves, we will.

Bottom line: a man in the presence of a child is no deterrent for attention, yet a woman with a child is – or perhaps I should say, seems to be.

Does it make us seem too domesticated? Not fun? As if we come with too much commitment? Or is it simply because women possess a maternal instinct and are drawn to kids? 

Perhaps I am wrong in my assumptions regarding women's reactions to men, but living the life of a nanny, and dealing with the day to day interactions with other people, I can say definitively that I receive little to no attention from men.