First, my disclaimer: I love my kids and I’m luckier than most to have the opportunity to be a stay-at-home-dad during summer break.
Next, my main point: Anyone with the misconception that being a full time stay-at-home parent of small children, has it easier than the other parental unit who goes to work full time….needs to do it for a while. I’m actually looking forward to the new semester to have a break from “daddy day care”.
This weekend my wife went off to Portland, I dropped the kids off at Grandma’s. Loaded the fridge with bottles of Corona, and a pile of marinating meat for throwing on the grill. I spent the day with mend preparing for the show this Friday. Music, beer, and fire grilled honey-mango chicken. The male ritual of standing around a pit of fire, cooking meat with a large sharp object, drinking beer and sharing tall tales was a nice way to ring in the new semester.
2 Comments
August 28, 2008 at 7:56 pm
I generally enjoy the quiet life all the time at home, but that will change in September. I’ll have my grandsons one weekend a month for three months. Of course, I won’t have them 100% of the time – son-in-law will be the primary parent Friday night through Saturday afternoon. Then Grandma takes over until the mum comes home Sunday evening. I may need an ambulance crew to help me move after the first weekend.
I seem to have a gap in my memory when I think about the problems of having my small daughters around at home (and often at work too). I know privacy was minimal…one had to be creative, sneaky and sometimes demanding to get any (make what you will of that statement). Speaking of privacy, it’s non-existent in my son-in-law’s household. I arrived early on Wednesday morning to pick up the very short person and heard an uproar coming from the back of the house. I followed my son-in law back to see what was going and stood in the bathroom door with the following scene…my daughter in the shower trying to shave her legs, 5-year old on toilet talking loudly and doing ???, 15-month old hollering, pulling curtain back and trying to get into the tub, and son-in-law by the sink laughing.
September 7, 2008 at 3:35 am
Not so much an ambulance as a straight jacket and a quiet room with padded walls where very nice people in white bring you “medicine”. =)~
Thanks Mum!!