January 6 - Daddy Day Care

There’s a common trope in commercials that I picked up on long before I became a father, but since Elliot and Eleanor came around it’s become more glaringly noticeable.  It’s the idea that I, as a man, can't do things around the house because that's the "woman's job" and I must somehow be inept at at this. Or that accidents are bound to happen when the kids are left alone with me, because of course the dad doesn't know what he's doing.  Here's an example (in Spanish, but you'll get the jist):

It's kind of offensive and really irritating.  

I'm not perfect or the world's best father, but damn it, I think I do a pretty good job of it, and so do a lot of my friends that have kids.  We are proud of how we're raising them, and we take in active interest in being a parent.  When Elizabeth leaves, I don't refer to what I do with the kids as "babysitting" (another pet peeve of mine).  It's just parenting, it's my job too.

Yesterday, a group of Elizabeth's friends took her out of town to hit up some breweries.  And while they did that, the husbands stayed back and watched over the kiddos, Daddy Day Care style.

Now, I've been left with the kids by myself before and things went just fine.  The house was still standing when Elizabeth got home, the kids were in bed and mostly clean, all was right in the world. But having company yesterday certainly helped and made the day go by much easier.

Rex brought his daughter, Evelyn, who is exactly one week older than Eleanor, and Bob brought his son, Oli, who is 2 months younger than Elliot, and Harper, who is 6 weeks older than Eleanor.  We're all traveling on parallel paths (Bob and his wife, Elaine, even got married at the same place that Elizabeth and I tied the knot).  Elliot gets super excited when Oli comes over (Oli calls him "El-Lee-Lee" and it's frickin' adorable), and the girls have had sleep overs and play dates from the start.

So five kids, three adults, what could possibly go wrong?

Well, in fact, nothing went wrong.  We had a blast.  The floor of the house was soon covered in a mix of Play-Doh, Paw Patrol puzzle pieces, and toy cars.  The boys chased each other around and around, and the girls bobbled their heads and cried for the occasional bottle. We were able to cover for each other when we needed help or a break.

If you were expecting some kind of crazy shenanigans...well, like I said at the start of this, not all dads are like how we're portrayed on TV.  Instead, we got to talk about the funny things our kids do, or the things that are working for us as parents, or the mistakes we've made.  We watched Oli wolf down a tray of cheese (it was impressive), and we made Evelyn smile (she does so with her whole face). The kiddos were fed and in bed at a reasonable hour.  Elliot made his sister do this:

The three of us all agreed that we don't see how the folks at daycare do this for many more children who are not their own.  We probably couldn't handle that.  But being dads, living up to the gig we signed up for? That we can make work