role reversal

Just finished a full week of work.  I haven't had a full time job for over a decade.  It was sad and wonderful, too.  Hated being away from the kids, especially since I'd planned to spend the summer with them, but loved being back in creative business building.  Fun!

Hubby's doing Daddy Day Care.  A total role reversal for us.

Lounging at the pool with the fam on Friday, Hubby turned to me and said to me proudly, "I managed to keep them alive this week."

"No," I responded, "they didn't kill you."

I didn't want to rain on his sunny day, but parents keep their kids alive until about age 5, and from then on, parents move into self-preservation mode or face peril.  

Don't believe me? Here's the evidence:

• Kids will jump on you suddenly without notice and you will lose your breath, break a necessary bone, or choke on your bite.
• Kids will speak loudly in your ear in the middle of the night and if you don't have a heart attack from the shock, you will most certainly fall down the stairs and break your neck while navigating Legos in the hallway shuttling them back off to bed.
  
• Kids will disappear suddenly in crowded, unfamiliar territory and a lifetime later (usually a few minutes) a security guard will hand them back to you, regard your shaking, snorting, mascara-running state of disrepair and offer to call your husband because "you don't look like you should drive."
  
• Kids will interrupt you every 2.4 minutes with all sorts of emergencies (hunger, not sharing, web issues, missing toys, etc.) and due to this constant interruption your brain will become spastic and you'll be unable to think, talk or stay continent.   
  

So, Hubby survived his first week as stay-at-home dad.  And, I'm proud of him.   

Here's something hard to admit: Hubby's much better at laundry than I.  He ROCKS at laundry.  Okay, maybe not totally rocks 'cause none of its folded, but still, it's all completely cleaned.  Our house harbors not one stitch of dirty clothes (ignoring what we threw in the hamper last night).  He was still managing loads on Saturday.  While I watched.

I've had the past nearly seven years with the kids on my own, now it's his turn for a summer.  I think this will be a good thing for all of us.