Thursday, January 12, 2012

When Daddy takes over

Ok, my husband is a great father. Awesome. The best.

And..

Sometimes, I just have to shake my head.

We have it worked out that on days he works from home, he "takes over" with the kids after dinner so I can work. Tonight is really the first night we've done it this way and I just... don't... know... :)

He put on a movie. Ok, fine. I just hope that doesn't become the default. They don't need to watch that much TV, but I know how easy it is to fall into the trap of thinking, "If they aren't watching something, I have to watch them... and I'm tired..." I know he's worn out. He's been working really hard and we're all adjusting to his new schedule. But seriously, I can't have them watching a movie every time it's Daddy Night. I'll be honest, part of my criticism of it is that if he always watches movies or TV with them, I will feel like I have to keep the TV off the rest of the day so they aren't watching too much TV (for my liking). I want their TV time to be on my watch, so I can let them watch cartoons while I take a break or get things done - when I need them distracted!

Plus, the TV thing doesn't work well with Ella. She's two. She does two-year-old things. Putting on a movie means she'll watch a bit, then get up and start playing/making messes/getting into things - or, banging on my bedroom door shouting, "Mama! Awe you in dere!" over and over.

When the movie was over, I heard him shout, "Who wants to go get ice cream!" Ah, such a Daddy thing to do. I don't know about the daddies at your houses, but in our house, Daddy is often known as Treat Daddy. Seriously, my boys have called him that. He LOVES to give them treats. It's simultaneously very sweet, and extraordinarily exasperating. A) they don't need ANOTHER treat (I already heard him bribe Ella with chocolate kisses to come downstairs and stop beating on my door) and B) it's 7:24, which means they SHOULD be upstairs cleaning up their toys and getting ready for bed.

Sigh.

It's a perennial problem for moms, isn't it? We want Daddy to be an invovled and active parent. But it's hard to give him the room to do so, knowing he's going to do things his way and that (often) isn't how we'd be doing things.

He really is great though. But ice cream? Now? Oh heavens... [image]

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is such a great post. It is so hard to let things go and let husbands. Oh well. It is cute to read about it though, I have to say.

Claire said...

Thanks. I was smiling as I wrote it, so it wasn't all said in complaint :). My husband is a fun guy, no doubt about it. He certainly keeps my life interesting! :)