Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Dad vs. Mom

It seems to me that I can scream until I'm blue in the face and all my husband has to do is say, "Sit down and shut up!" and the kids obey.  I typically have to ask my kids multiple times to do something and my husband only has to ask them once.  I feel like the kids are rotten when they are home alone with me but if I leave and my husband has them alone he tells me they are great.  I think they have more fun with him and I try to tell myself it's because he's around less but in my case that's not necessarily true.

I would consider myself the primary care giver, chauffeur, chef, maid, etc. but my husband is around a lot and helps out too.  I think I get frustrated and flustered easily and he tries to make a game out of everything.  He really is like a big kid and maybe that's why he seems to relate to them better.  When I drive the kids to school I visit with them or we listen to the radio but when my husband drives them they play games.  Their favorite game is where they all guess how many cars they will see on their way to town and then they sit and count each car they see.  Or since there are three ways to get to town from our house he lets them pick which way to town.  It sounds really simple I know but I guess my brain just doesn't think that way.

Now that I'm writing this I think he is the way he is because he is the 'less stressed' parent.  I'm in charge of remembering who goes where and when, and who needs a sack lunch for a field trip, and I pay the bills and send out the birthday cards and the kids' pictures and make the dr. appts and the dentist appts etc.  I think my brain just has way to much crammed in it for me to enjoy a ride to town with three children.

I jokingly told my husband last night that the reason I keep him around is the keep the kids under control and for him to remind me what I did yesterday!  I'm constantly one step a head so I don't forget anything that once the task is done or the day is gone I forget.  I guess some things I have to let go of so I create more room in my head for more information!  He told me I should start doing cross word puzzles or something because he's worried about how bad my memory loss may be in the future.  I have 'mom brain' alright!

My father used to play with my brother and me in the yard.  Mother would come out and say, "You're tearing up the grass."  "We're not raising grass," Dad would reply.  "We're raising boys."  ~Harmon Killebrew
Sometimes the poorest man leaves his children the richest inheritance.  ~Ruth E. Renkel


A father carries pictures where his money used to be.  ~Author Unknown

1 comment:

  1. In my house we have the opposite problem. It's DH that tends to forget that we have KIDS not just short adults *sigh*

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