Role Reversal...

Today I want to send a big thank you out and acknowledge all the dads and partners who are in our lives who support us moms and our kids. I think sometimes Dads get a bit of a bad reputation of not being involved or not knowing what to do when it comes to kids. In most families it is the Mom who does the majority of child care and child care decision making. My family is no different. In the usual day to day routine I am the primary caregiver, my husband works away and is home for periods of time with the kids but for the most part, it's me by myself with the kids. He usually tries to help out as much as he can with the kids when he is home and will take care of them when I pick up shifts at work in the hospital. When I am going to be gone though, I usually have outfits planned out for the kids to wear (all or at least the majority of their clothes folded and put away), try to have something pre made for meals and basically try and keep his day pretty stress free/easy.

However, this past month my husband took on the role of primary parent when my father was involved in a horse accident that resulted in him having a brain injury and being in ICU for a week. When this happened, my life kind of was thrown off it's normal balance. I was used to being a mommy first, a wife second and a daughter third. But all of a sudden I felt the need to be there as a daughter and a support to my mom and sisters. Being at the ICU meant that I couldn't have my kids/husband with me all the time and that also meant that my husband would be the one looking after the kids. My life as a mom/wife kind of was put on the back burner for a bit. Seeing as this was an unexpected event my house/kids/husband/myself were all unprepared. My clean laundry piles were their usual height (which also meant that most things weren't put away in my kids' rooms),  my fridge was on the verge of being empty (grocery shopping was in the plans for us), and activities for the kids had already been planned (my daughter was super excited to go to Parent Link as we usually did). So my husband stepped up to be the primary caregiver. The first day/night I was gone from my house for just about 24 hours. The following days for the week my dad was in ICU I would spend the entire day, leaving shortly after breakfast and staying until after supper or leaving after lunch and staying until well past my kids' bedtimes.

While this was a difficult time for me dealing with all that was going on, I was extremely thankful that my husband stepped in as the primary parent and allowed me this time with my parents and siblings. Some days were a bit more stressful than others for him- when he couldn't find where my daughter's clothes were (I knew what laundry basket they were in but he didn't!). He also took both the kids to Parent Link in our small town- which usually only has Moms and their kids attend, and my kids loved it, my daughter especially! He made meals for the kids and made sure that there was always extra for me to heat up when I got home. He cleaned the house and tried to keep everything as I normally would. He took the kids grocery shopping and even Christmas shopping (this turned out to be a bit of an adventure for them all!) This was a great lesson for both of us in regards to our family. I learned that it was ok to let someone help me out around home and with the kids and my husband learned more about what my day to day looked like and how taking care of two toddlers is a bit crazy some days!