Welcome to my world

So with the coming of the spring, so comes the busy time at my work. A lot of commitments in a short amount of time. Because of that, Hubby has had to step in quite often and take over some of my kid duties that aren't typically his responsibility. When I was a stay-at-home, he rarely had to do any kid shuffling or kid appointments or all the pick-ups and drop-offs but in the last 18 months, his world has changed. I gotta say, overall, he's done fairly well. As long as he has a specific time list and itinerary for each of our girls, he's pretty self-sufficient. Now I'm not going to say that he's did it with a smile on his face or hasn't come home ragged and irritated, but he's managed not to forget anyone anywhere and has even memorized a few schedules without having to write them down.

I secretly enjoy the fact that he has to take over every once in a while and just have a little taste of what I've been doing the last 12 years when it was all up to me. Shuffling three kids to multiple activities along with all the correct gear, drinks, snacks, jackets, and anything else that might possibly be needed for that activity, is no easy task and reminds me of a well-choreographed dance routine. If you're an experienced choreographer, the dance is easy but if you're not, then it can be quite a challenge and one that takes a lot of time to learn.

The last two weeks he's had to take over "Terrible Tuesdays," which is the day where all three girls have to be shuffled every half hour from 3:30-7:00pm. He's done a great job without a lot of fuss, because he knows better than to belly-ache to me about it. However, I did hear him grumble to one of his buddies how he had to get our middle daughter to three different activities in one night last week and laughed at how crazy it was. Then last night he finally broke and whined a little to me that all he did Tuesday afternoon was run girls here and there and made 50 trips back and forth to the dance studio. Instead of saying, "And ... ?," I just smiled and agreed because he managed to even fit in a trip to Walmart to get milk between pick-up and drop-off....a real efficient mom move there!

This week, in particular though, he had the privilege of sitting through 2 hours of play tryouts for our youngest daughter. I've been taking our girls to these annual kids play tryouts for years so I was happy to pass the baton. His texts started coming to my phone after the first half hour of sitting there. I could sense by his tone that he would have rather been having a root canal with no anesthesia than sitting there with several other moms watching 100 kids tryout for a play. Totally not his cup of tea and to top it off, during dinner time. I could only imagine the look he probably had on his face as he sat pouting in the back of the elementary cafeteria praying the minutes would fly by faster. But instead of feeling guilty, I just sympathized with him and when we finally saw each other and the first words out of his mouth was about the torturous play tryouts he barely survived, I replied graciously, "Welcome to my world."

What a change it's been for him in our household and he really is doing a pretty good job. I'm blessed to have a backup and a Hubby who's willing to help and step up whenever I need him, but I admit it's fun to watch him squirm when he's walking in my shoes and being Mr. Mom!