The norm seems to be that in the home, the female does more of the lion’s share of cooking, cleaning, shopping and organising.  

Then when it comes to children, again it’s the mum doing more of the caring, homework, counselling not to mention being the 24-hour taxi service.

And even when you head into the work place, woman are not paid the same rate as their male counterparts, and yet they do same job.

Now before everyone goes crazy, I realise this is not the way it works for all families, households and businesses.

But whether, in your opinion, it’s right or wrong, the research shows these to be the current facts of life for the majority.

So why wouldn’t you want to come back to earth as a man?

Well, this week in the school playground I discovered exactly why I would never want to be a man.

A dear little girl with long blonde curls was walking a few metres in front of me on her way to class one morning.

Somewhere way back behind me I could hear a voice calling out someone’s name.  A few steps more and there it was again, a voice desperately trying to catch someone’s attention.

Within moments a young boy pushed past me still calling out what I had now worked out was the name of the girl up ahead. 

Finally, out of breath from frantically ducking and weaving through all the parents, this kid caught up to her.  With flushed cheeks he once again, now right beside her, said her name and said hello.

She did not even move her head in his direction.  There was no response to his over exuberant enthusiasm for this their first encounter of the day.

She shut him down without flinching.

Not remotely deterred he just beamed up at her, happy to walk beside her to class.

Now had this happened to me, I would have been completely crushed.  My ego would be battered and I can imagine myself as a 10-year-old maybe even running away and having a little cry.

I cannot imagine how this young boy was brave enough to survive her obvious disinterest in him so well.

And of course, things won’t get any easier. As a teenager he will need the same resilience to ask girls out.

We all handle rejection in different ways and with difference levels of tolerance.  But for blokes this must be a pretty hard thing to do.  

To put yourself out there, let someone know how you feel realising you could get knocked back.

Think I’ll stick to my lot in life as a chick.