Dad In Charge

I have to say that my husband is GREAT about letting me go and do my thing on the weekends to have a break from the kids, and I am REALLY grateful for that. However, he is WAY more laid back about certain things than I am. The house, for example, often looks like a damn bomb went off upon my return, and he often keeps the kids on a MUCH longer leash than I typically do. And this past weekend was certainly no exception to the go-with-the-flow-Daddy-on-duty routine.

On Saturday afternoon the hubby packed up the kids and the pooch and headed over to the dog beach while I went for a nice, long run by myself. When I got home, however, I found my kids changing clothes for the THIRD TIME THAT DAY. Apparently, they decided to get into the freezing cold waters of Lake Michigan with the frickin’ dog. WTF?! Where was their dad when they decided to take this little polar bear plunge, you ask? Good question! I would LOVE to know the answer to that as well, but I never got a straight answer.

Yet another example occurred on Sunday, when we all decided to take a family bike ride together. My husband, AKA Mr. Speedy Gonzalez, was naturally the leader of the pack, whereas I was moseying along at the back of the bunch. We were no more than a block from our house when my daughter completely ate pavement when she made too sharp of a turn around a corner. I jumped off my bike and yelled to my oblivious husband to wait up and then proceeded to comfort the screaming kid at my feet. So, when my son later asked me why I always ride my bike so slowly, I simply explained that SOMEBODY’S gotta keep an eye out for any unforeseen accidents since their father seems to think he’s Lance Armstrong.

And then the real kicker was when I came home from the grocery store on Sunday evening to find two buck naked (and might I add VERY MUDDY) children waiting for a shower. The nonchalant explanation I got from my husband was that the kids were playing in the mud in the backyard. Oh, of course! Why didn’t I think of that? Cause that type of productive activity is something that’s TOTALLY encouraged around here. Do you know that I’m STILL trying to get the mud off my son’s caked shoes? Yeah, good times.

So I guess if I want to look on the bright side of things, nobody has lost a limb or burned the house down (yet anyway). I should just be happy that I get a moment here or there to escape by myself, right? Besides, he’s an amazing papa, and I can’t blame him if the hospital forgot to send us home with our how-to parenting guide when the twins were born seven years ago.