The last two days have been some of the hardest of my life. I’ve been stuck at home and haven’t been able to work. I’ve been forced to get up late, stay in my PJs all day, and watch TV all day long. I wish I could say I’m kidding. I might be guilty of exaggerating a bit, but staying home the last two days and watching children while my wife shuttled one or the other or herself to a doctor’s appointment has not been a picnic. I almost missed my goal of blogging every day because I haven’t seen the Big Board O’ Blog Topics that hangs in my office.
I felt a lot like Mr. Mom, a movie I saw and remembered from when I was 12, who said to his wife …
Jack Butler: I yelled at Kenny for coloring outside the lines! Megan and I are starting to watch the same TV shows. I’m liking them. I’m losing it!
In all seriousness, I have to give my wife a lot of credit. She has said before, and now I believe her, that going to work each day and dropping off the kids at day care would be easier. It’s not that our children are ill behaved. They are just kids, and I’ve learned that kids can’t do ANYTHING by themselves. It doesn’t matter how old they are. One of them is always in your face asking you to change the channel or get them something to drink or wipe their bottoms or read them a book. They also have no concept of putting anything away. Even our oldest hasn’t learned that when he comes home from school, he can’t just drop his backpack and his shoes and his coat in the middle of the floor, at least not if he doesn’t expect his little brother to shred every paper in it.
I thought today that technology might make this better. No, I don’t mean a robot nanny, a la Rosie in the Jetsons. I just mean if I stayed home I’d have a few minutes or even hours during nap time to check my Farmville farm or finishing some Champions Online quests. No dice. When nap time rolled around, I was more tired than the kids, but I couldn’t sleep because I also agreed to start the laundry and clean the kitchen. Then I started looking or other projects to do around the house and ended up drilling a hole in the wall while trying to run CAT 5 cable. Our youngest is also at that age that if you turn your back on him, he finds a Sharpie and starts drawing on your laptop.
One of the biggest reasons I left journalism and went back to school is so I could have more time for my family. I like being a professor because during breaks it’s possible for me to spend time at home helping out. I will gladly be there for my wife and family when she needs to run one to the dentist to pull a cracked molar (Sorry Lincoln!) and doesn’t want to take the other two. I can easily duck out for a school play, a field trip to the pumpkin patch or a morning beating the extra tough Joker level on Lego Batman.
But I’m glad I can go back to the office the next day. It’s a luxury my wife doesn’t have.
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Oh how i loved this post! Great tribute to your wife and to all the women who work so hard to take care of the things that truly matter. And love the pic – it’s fun to remember Holly that little!
Thank you for getting it, and for staying home and helping out. Now you know why I am always a grouch when you get home. Sorry about that by the way and thank you for the stay at home mom credit. You aren’t so bad yourself!
Hans, why do you tell me these things?