Another glorious Sydney Summer day is drawing to a close, as is the holiday. Tomorrow marks the final full day in Oz, a day full of packing, goodbyes and telling JC she'll be getting on an aeroplane on Sunday. It's been a great trip.

One thing that contstantly amazes me is compliments I get. Now I'm a modest kind of guy, as this sentence attests. But several times over the past two weeks I've taken PB and JC out to give Mrs M some personal/quiet time. Trips to the park, or for swims at friends' places, or some such activity. Yet almost every single time someone will make a comment on how "good" I'm doing taking the girls out on my own. Now I've checked with Mrs M and she rarely if ever gets comments along these lines. At best it might be a "Gee your kids are well behaved" style, but enver a comment about how she's doing with the kids. But as soon as I, a man, do it, I receive compliments left, right and centre. Really I don't do anything special, and it's taken a couple of years of watching and learning from Mrs M before I've even approached a reasonable level of competency. A little planning, a little anticipation and a little fortitude and it's not hard at all. I don't need a medal for doing what Mrs M does all day, every day.

The point is I find it staggering that it is still considered "good" when a Dad is the one taking the kids out on his own, when a Mum doing the same is just doing her job. I must admit I love whenever I get a chance to take the girls out on my own because I know Mrs M rarely gets kid-free time. And I'm not going to say no to the compliments.

It would just be nice if people said the same things to Mums every now and again.