Dr LeCrone
05-21-2006, 10:04 PM
Last week I advocated that all fathers give mom a few days vacation while they take over household and parental duties. A recent practice of this advocacy had some unusual happenings which made me aware of the need for a backup system.
The first few events that “warmed me up” for the main event were little things, things that I was fairly capable of getting through by relying on my sense of humor. They included minor infractions, such as:
• Sending my 5-year-old daughter to school with her dress on backwards. I chalked this up to ignorance on my part. It had never happened with my two sons and I admit to being a poor observer of women’s fashions, particularly those of a 5-year-old. Since it was a new dress she had never tried on, she too was unaware until a friend stopped us and we corrected the error before anyone else saw the mistake.
• Things started going downhill when several bottles of soda pop exploded in the freezer. One of my sons had placed the bottles in the freezer to speed their cooling time. Shards of glass penetrated nutritious casseroles which my wife had carefully prepared for us. We had to throw them out. Although my children pretended to be dismayed, I knew they secretly were delighted at the prospect of eating out and eating fast food. They are well aware that dad can do little more than grill a steak on a barbecue pit.
Things got more serious when flash flooding sent streams of water into different rooms of the house though unseen cracks in our newly shingled roof. An opportunity arose for the whole family to pull together and form a bucket brigade, but alas the rains came at 3 a.m. and three sleeping children are not much help in times like that.
I knew that getting everyone up on Sunday morning for church was the right thing to do, and I felt that if I had wronged the creator this was my chance to show my god intentions. But I was thwarted at this turn by a dead car battery.
As we all sat down to a lunch of Post Toasties in our Sunday best it became apparent to all of us that the only real solution to our dilemma was having mother home again.
And then came the phone call from mom which only dampened my spirits as she told me with much enthusiasm about how seeing all her old friends again made her feel young again. Yes, she said, it took her back 20 years to her carefree college days. The dance had extended into the wee hours of the morning, but she couldn’t prolong the conversation as she needed to hurry to a brunch with former classmates.
If she felt young, I certainly felt old. In fact, my 50th reunion seemed right around the corner. Fortunately for me and my sons the Cowboys won that night and I saw their struggle and near loss as analogous to my situation. The next day dawned with some blue sky on the horizon as the prospect of mom’s return within 24 hours made spirits revive. Everyone started Monday morning off on an optimistic note.
Being both mother and father for a short period of time can have its reward, but sometimes it is hard to see clearly what these rewards are; so, I will settle at this point by expressing the empathy I have for each of you who have to be both mom and pop and raise children in a single-parent family.
As to my advice for dads, I can only say that you need never lose sight of the benefits of the great institution of the family unit – one which has both a mother and a father.
Harold H. LeCrone, Jr., Ph.D. Copyright 1985
The first few events that “warmed me up” for the main event were little things, things that I was fairly capable of getting through by relying on my sense of humor. They included minor infractions, such as:
• Sending my 5-year-old daughter to school with her dress on backwards. I chalked this up to ignorance on my part. It had never happened with my two sons and I admit to being a poor observer of women’s fashions, particularly those of a 5-year-old. Since it was a new dress she had never tried on, she too was unaware until a friend stopped us and we corrected the error before anyone else saw the mistake.
• Things started going downhill when several bottles of soda pop exploded in the freezer. One of my sons had placed the bottles in the freezer to speed their cooling time. Shards of glass penetrated nutritious casseroles which my wife had carefully prepared for us. We had to throw them out. Although my children pretended to be dismayed, I knew they secretly were delighted at the prospect of eating out and eating fast food. They are well aware that dad can do little more than grill a steak on a barbecue pit.
Things got more serious when flash flooding sent streams of water into different rooms of the house though unseen cracks in our newly shingled roof. An opportunity arose for the whole family to pull together and form a bucket brigade, but alas the rains came at 3 a.m. and three sleeping children are not much help in times like that.
I knew that getting everyone up on Sunday morning for church was the right thing to do, and I felt that if I had wronged the creator this was my chance to show my god intentions. But I was thwarted at this turn by a dead car battery.
As we all sat down to a lunch of Post Toasties in our Sunday best it became apparent to all of us that the only real solution to our dilemma was having mother home again.
And then came the phone call from mom which only dampened my spirits as she told me with much enthusiasm about how seeing all her old friends again made her feel young again. Yes, she said, it took her back 20 years to her carefree college days. The dance had extended into the wee hours of the morning, but she couldn’t prolong the conversation as she needed to hurry to a brunch with former classmates.
If she felt young, I certainly felt old. In fact, my 50th reunion seemed right around the corner. Fortunately for me and my sons the Cowboys won that night and I saw their struggle and near loss as analogous to my situation. The next day dawned with some blue sky on the horizon as the prospect of mom’s return within 24 hours made spirits revive. Everyone started Monday morning off on an optimistic note.
Being both mother and father for a short period of time can have its reward, but sometimes it is hard to see clearly what these rewards are; so, I will settle at this point by expressing the empathy I have for each of you who have to be both mom and pop and raise children in a single-parent family.
As to my advice for dads, I can only say that you need never lose sight of the benefits of the great institution of the family unit – one which has both a mother and a father.
Harold H. LeCrone, Jr., Ph.D. Copyright 1985