Skip to main content

A girl could get used to this

I arrived home a little bit late from the office this evening, after running an errand without worrying about racing up the highway from my office to get to daycare on time. When I walked in the door, I was greeted by the most scrumptious smells of onions and fried pork chops. A little boy with a gigantic smile and an infectious giggle ran to me yelling "Mommy's home!" and a handsome man kissed me and said "Just in time. Have a seat. Your dinner's ready." We ate a delicious dinner, and throughout the meal, the man and the boy spoke a strange made-up language that only they understood, exchanging giggles about a surprise that waited for me in the fridge. Finally when I thought the little boy would explode from the excitement of the surprise, the man presented a homemade carrot cake -- the first he'd ever baked -- just because he knew it is my favorite.

No need to pinch me, or check me for fever -- or send me for counseling because I've obviously had a psychotic break. This is real life. Or at least it is today.

It's been about two weeks now since Big Daddy's, ahem, parting from his employer of 12 years (those bastards), and I'm discovering that there are a lot of pluses to our new arrangement

(1) Daddy and Sweet Boy finally get to spend some regular old time together, doing regular old stuff like putting together puzzles, coloring, and exploring the woods in a snow shower -- all the things that I've been able to do with the Boy on a day-to-day basis but Daddy had been missing while making that hideous commute each day.

(2) Daddy is more consistent in matters of discipline. Sweet Boy's behavior at school has improved about 200%, and I'm noticing a number of positive changes at home, too. Like cleaning up toys without being hounded, or taking his cat-feeding responsibilities seriously.

(3) Dinner is ready when I get home from work. Which is enough to make any girl happy all on its own, but it also means that we eat earlier, which means we spend more time together as a family in the evenings.

(4) Our house has never been so clean. Seriously. Never. The counter tops sparkle and the dishes are put away. The wood floors shine. The furniture is cat-fur free. Even the laundry gets washed, folded, and put away. As if by magic.

(5) Small little odd jobs that have been sitting undone for months -- years! -- have been completed. Case in point: The ice cube maker in our freezer has been waiting to be connected since we moved in 3 years; he did some research online, hooked it all up, and we now have ice on demand!

(6) All the schlepping and errand running that I've been doing in between work and mommying is getting done while I'm at work. This includes things like oil changes, grocery store runs, phone calls, shopping for gifts for friends' birthdays -- even registering the kiddo for kindergarten!

(7) In the morning, I get up and eat breakfast with Sweet Boy, then we take our time getting dressed because Daddy can take him to school when I go to work. I can't even begin to describe how this has decreased my stress and made mornings better for all of us.

(8) Big Daddy is relaxed. And smiling. Finally. This is a very good thing.

No, I'm not advocating that all dual-income households drop a job just to shake things up. Yes, I think there's considerable time spent in the recliner with the TV on. And yes, I know that our life will be challenging* in a number of ways over the next few weeks (or months). And of course I do want my husband to find a job outside the home that he feels good about. But for now, this stay-at-home dad thing really is good.

(*Keep in mind that in about 4 days, I'll be home on maternity leave for 12 weeks...so we'll both be stay-at-home parents...at the same time! That's a whole lot of togetherness. Stay tuned.)

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Ottomania!

I've been spending a lot of time thinking about ottomans. A ridiculous amount of time, actually, given the number of other things I truly should focus my thoughts on. I find, though, that when the world outside gets scary (and scary is a truly relative term these days) I turn to online shopping for things I don't really need. Actually, it's more like online browsing; I rarely purchase. I spend hours searching for, oh, erasable colored gel pens or standing desks or all-natural curly-hair gel or the perfect black sweater. (Yes, these are things I've fixated on over this winter; I still haven't clicked "buy" nor settled on any of them.) This week, it's ottomans. By the way, my girl  BrenĂ©  Brown would call this behavior numbing . I'm okay with that. Because online browsing is way less detrimental (so far) than chain smoking, which is what I'd really like to do when the world is scary. It's a way to escape, to daydream, to focus on things tha

If the brain-mouth filter turned off...

"Mommy," he asks, reaching for my hand as we walk out of the grocery store, "wouldn't it be cool if we had some kind of a hat that when you put it on your head, you start to speak all of your thoughts?" His eyes are wide, hair fringing the blue. He's letting it grow until spring (exactly 21 days away, as he explained this morning) and he looks shaggy and wild. Like one of Peter Pan's lost boys in sweatpants and a Star Wars t-shirt. We've just ordered a cake for his birthday party - celebrating 8 years at a trampoline park this weekend. "Can you imagine it?" he asks, "if everyone could hear your thoughts all the time? Ha!" I love ideas like this. They pop out of his mouth in unexpected moments, little gems that generally begin with what if? or wanna know something? I hope his mind always asks those questions. But wow...can you imagine it? A hat that turns off that brain-to-mouth filter? What would he hear from me, right in thi

Lost between books

This is kinda what the inside of my brain looks like right now...a big see of books that don't interest me. I'm in a restless state between novels right now, and it's really uncomfortable. You know that feeling when you finish a really good one and don't know what to do next? I needed a couple days to process the book I finished last week ( Everything I Never Told You , by Celeste Ng), but then suddenly found myself without a Next Book. It doesn't happen often (I usually have 4-5 books going at once, all different genres and types), but every now and again I get stuck in this drift. Nothing really interests me enough to invest money and time in. So. Weird. I've spent way too much time over the weekend downloading samples to my Kindle, reading reviews on Goodreads, and perusing the library reading lists. Me without a book is like a guitarist without her guitar or a soccer player without a field to run on. I just feel a bit lost, even irritable. I'm just