I'm practically shaking with a mixture of anger and despair as I write this. Not only was my role as a father insulted today by a woman I had never even seen before, but she also attacked my occupation, my intelligence, and my self worth. That simultaneously pisses me off, and almost brings me to tears that society has gotten to this point.

I am a single father to two girls. My wife died shortly after giving birth to our second daughter. My eldest daughter is 5, my youngest 4. I love my little girls more than anything else in this world.

I'm a kindergarten teacher, and most afternoons when I come home from work, my daughters beg me to take them to the park. More often than not, I oblige. Today was one such day; it was just a half day at the school today, so at noon, I went home to my kids. Almost as soon as I walked into my house, my girls had their coats on and were ready to walk to the playground.

The playground closest to my house is usually packed with kids, usually with mothers following closely behind them. Seeing fathers with kids at that park is somewhat of an oddity where I live, and I've gotten more suspicious looks from mothers than I can count. Unfortunately, I've somewhat learned to just accept it as something thats going to happen.

Today, there were a ton of people at the park. There were a bunch of other families, many of which were just sitting on the grassy hill nearby, watching the sun sink into the horizon. Still, the playground was packed. My girls ended up just horsing around in the grassy area near the swingsets, playing some type of game where they threw themselves onto the ground in a fit of giggles.

It was absolutely adorable, so I naturally pulled out my phone to record this impossibly cute moment. After a good two and a half minutes of adorable footage, my youngest daughter tripped and fell onto the ground. I instinctively got up from the bench, and started to walk over to them, when a woman who I'd never met before stepped right in my path.

This woman had been giving me the evil eye for almost the entire time we'd been at the park. If looks could kill, I'd be in a morgue right now. She asked me how it made me feel to videotape little girls getting hurt. I responded, asking her what in God's name she was talking about. She repeated her question, to which I retorted that those were my daughters, before asking her to move out of my way so I could attend to my crying child. She didn't budge.

"Shouldn't you be in work?" She snapped, and I finally understood what she was implying. Naturally, I felt completely insulted. In response to her question, I told her I was a kindergarten teacher, and that school had let out early today.

"A kindergarten teacher? They hired a MAN as a kindergarten teacher? Jesus, the education program in this town really has gone to shit," she snorted in response, chuckling at her unfunny joke.

For a third time, I asked her to move out of my way, and she refused. My 5 year old was sitting on the ground next to her sister, signaling me over while trying to get my other daughter to stop crying.

At this point, it was clear that the woman wasn't planning on moving any time soon, so I attempted to walk around her. She pushed me back. I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket, and told her that if she touched me one more time, I would call the police. At this point, my situation had attracted the attention of a few other families, many of which were standing awkwardly off to the side, unsure if they should intervene.

The woman begrudgingly stepped to the side, and as I walked past her, she said something that absolutely infuriated me. "Shouldn't their mother be doing this." I instantly stopped walking, and turned around. I walked back over to her, and glared at her, telling her that my wife had passed away four years ago. She seemed dumbfounded, and didn't say another word.

This entire event had taken less than five minutes, but my youngest girl had managed to calm herself down to just sniffling. I picked her up, held my 5 year olds hand, and walked out of that park without looking back. I could hear the woman arguing with someone else, but at that point, I didn't care. I just wanted to get as far away from that environment as possible.

I got my girls home, and dealt with my 4 year old's fairly large bruise. She'd hit her knee pretty hard. I started to feel ashamed that I hadn't been able to comfort her sooner, but soon that shame turned into infuriation. I was pissed off with the nerve of that complete stranger. I was pissed off with the fact that I'm given second looks when I'm out with my girls shopping. I was pissed off that any of these things are actually ISSUES in society today.

How have we advanced so far in all areas, but in gender roles, single fathers are still looked at in a terrible light by many people? Why do I have to take more precautions around my kindergarten students than my female colleagues, just to make sure that none of them tell their parents something out of context that gets blown out of proportions by over protective parents?

Why in God's name can't I just take my little girls to the park without getting watched like a hawk? Because I'm getting tired of bullshit like this. It's been hard enough raising my girls since my wife's passing. I don't need shit like this further complicating my life as a father.