While the Wife is Away

A couple of years ago, long before the thought of adopting more children was on our mind, my wife went out of town for 10 days.  When we were planning the trip I asked her to take Henry, our youngest with her, mostly because I wasn't sure how I would cope without her to help me.  She kindly obliged and left me at home with the oldest two kiddos.  After a couple days of her being gone I realized that I actually had no idea how hard it was to be a homemaker.

Fathers:  take note.  This is something that you need to do at least once.  Not only does this give you and idea what it is like to be the full time homemaker, it lets your wife know that you care about her enough to let her have some time away.

Well, fast forward to these past couple weeks.  It is now the third time I have been home with the kids with no adult supervision (I'm the fourth child in our house right now), this time with all three kids.  The older two are in school most days, so a lot of my time is spent with just me and Henry.  I am learning the same old lessons over again:  parenting is hard work, and to be expected to keep up with the house work on top of that is...well, a nightmare.  By the time the kids go to bed, I just want to put my feet up and watch a movie.  The last thing I want to do is the dishes and laundry.  But, after making the wrong choice on those things once (okay, maybe a couple times), and waking up to a stinky kitchen or kids who don't have clean underwear, I've learned to think better.

Gretchen, enjoying some well deserved time away

It took me a little while to get into a routine.  Waking up early and making breakfast, then waking the kids up to have them eat while I make lunches.  Taking them to the bus and returning home to get ready for work, which also means getting Henry ready.  Going to work and trying to get stuff done while parenting.  Making sure I am at the bus in time to get the kids.  Making dinner and getting the kids ready for bed.  There is simply no room in there to fold clothes!  I am blessed with an amazingly smart wife.  She read somewhere, and decided to implement this laundry plan where all she does is sort the clothes.  The kids each are responsible for putting away their own clothes.  This has saved my life these past few weeks!

Looking back at my time with the kids, I would says it was awesome.  It was a lot of hard work, but I had so much time with our kids, time I don't normally have.  I am awesomely blessed with an amazing wife, who allows me to do things like this.  All that said...I don't know what it is going to look like when we have 7 kids.  I mean, life was great with just me and the kids, but it was also hard.  I may have to call in reinforcements...Grandma's beware!  I may also think twice about going away and leaving Gretchen and the kids at home...