a crash course in staying home with the kids all the live-long day

i'm going to a conference next week (more on that later) so bill will be handling the kids solo for two and a half days. i'm not sure who is more excited: me or the kiddos?

somehow it doesn't seem fair that staying home all day with daddy is so much more fun than staying home all day with mama. i think of myself as a pretty fun person. i try to think of fun things to do and places to go. what makes being with daddy so much more special than being with mama?

what i would like is for those two days to be a crash course for bill on how hard it is to stay mentally balanced when your job for most of the day involves something similar to the work of the people who attend the middle east peace talks, only a lot less successful. if two out of every ten minutes is spent trying to bring peace and harmony to children who seem bent on destroying each other, and another three minutes out of ten is spent deflecting death-ray stares from your eldest who alternately seems to hate you and love you, and two more minutes are spent trying to demonstrate to everyone that there are enough toys in our house to keep three kids happy and the last three minutes of the ten are spent hiding in the bathroom hoping no one thinks to look for you there...what kind of day do you get? (i didn't even mention the five minutes out of ten that are spent trying to listen to three different conversations while making eye contact with three different sets of eyes and murmuring appropriate responses).

but this is not how bill's day will look. for one thing, he will not be trying to get all the laundry folded, washed and put away. he will not have to shop for groceries with all three kids in tow because i will have accomplished that for him myself. he will not have to wonder when he will find the time to get all the summer clothes unpacked, sorted and put away while sorting and packing up all the winter clothes (i guess i should get started on that one of these days). he will not have to trouble his pretty little head about meal planning, cleaning the house (at least not until 1 hour before i come home) or keeping the calendar organized with doctor's appointments, play dates, and library visits.

all that being said, i have to say how thankful i am that my husband recognizes what my days are like (unlike this man). he has never wondered why i don't seem to get as much work done during the day as i should (except once in the middle of the night, and he was gracious enough to apologize five minutes later). he gives me a break whenever he can, especially on saturday mornings so i can get caught up on my most pressing tasks. he acknowledges with me how amazing it is that the kids can argue so constantly about the most inane minutiae. he has stayed up late into the night pondering the challenges of raising each of our children without chastising me for not being more patient or more consistent.

by the time i get back from my conference, i know that bill will remember anew how what i do each and every day allows him to do all that he wants to do with his life.

and i will be happy to accept his gratitude in the form of tens and twenties...