[tps_header]Your wife is the real MVP!!! I just thought I should go ahead and let you fellas out there know that.
For the most part, your wife is the true most valuable player in your household, especially if you have kids! Man, I’ve had my baby girl who is 14 months old by myself for the past two weekends, and, yup, I’m ready to bow down to my wife.
First of all, who told my wife it was cool for her to leave me in Daddyland all alone for two weekends? But secondly, I do admit it was a great experience—one that gives some great perspective.
I think often times as men, even when we are good fathers, we can really forget about all of the things our wives really do for us and our kids.
Well, while I was on daddy duty, here were a few of my takeaways that I’m sure my wife will appreciate.[/tps_header]
1. It’s Hard to Get Stuff Done
You know how sometimes you come home while your wife has been with the kids all day, and it looks like nothing has been done around the house. So you say “what you been doing all day?”
Well, what she has been doing is tending to those kids, and they make it darn near impossible to get ANYTHING else accomplished. So go ahead and apologize to her now for even thinking of asking her “what have you been doing all day?”
2. Cleaning is almost pointless
I swear every time I cleaned something up, my little girl would go directly to it and mess something else up. I clean up her toys, she brings them back out. I sweep the floor, she drops more crumbs; I wipe off any glass, and she puts her finger prints right back on it. I give up!
3. Nothing will go as planned
I had all these things planned for me and baby girl to do together these past weekends. I had envisioned things like the park, the mall, story time and other things. WELP, let’s just say I never got any of those things done because every time I wanted to get her ready to go, I had to do something else I hadn’t planned on doing (geesh, kids).
4. Multi-tasking is a necessary evil
I’m the first to admit. I don’t do very well with multitasking. But I realized really fast that my only chance at accomplishing anything was to multitask. Somehow I figured out how to entertain her while still trying to clean this or cook that. Ladies, I don’t understand how you do it so well!
5. It’s easier to just stay home
Yeah, when I realized the task of packing bags, car seats, fixing bottles and extra clothes and snacks and all of that was a lot of work, I figured we could just have a daddy-daughter day in the house.
Plus, I just didn’t want to face the fact that she very well could have a blowout while at the mall and ain’t nobody got time for that!
6. Your kid just wants your attention
At times, I realized I had to get my head from out of my phone and off the TV and just be 100 percent in the moment with my baby. She didn’t care about that post or tweet or email, all she wanted was for me to pay attention to her. Truth is it was pretty fun too.
Man watching them learn, grow and be inquisitive is so cool. You don’t even realize how smart they are until you just sit and truly watch them.
Ummm, yeah, my wife usually handles all of the little details of clothes, food and everything else, so let’s just say that without her, there I was a little clueless. Truthfully, I’m pretty embarrassed that I couldn’t locate some of my baby’s clothes, shoes, snacks, etc. I was forced to pay attention now though.
9. Naptime is gold
Jesus be a nap! I never knew how productive I could be in two hours until I finally got her to go to sleep! You know you’ve got a short window to get stuff accomplished, so you’re as fast and focused as ever in those two hours. Our wives probably knew this all along.
I know there are so many good fathers out there learning these same lessons, but what’s most important is that you are present and engaged. Your wife truly is an MVP in the family, so be sure that you let her know how much you appreciate her and all the little things she does when it comes to the kids!
[tps_footer]BMWK, tag your spouse, telling them what you appreciate the most from their contribution to your partnership?[/tps_footer]