A Bloody Great Father’s Day
I always get so excited for Father’s Day. Even more so than Barry’s birthday. I guess it’s because everyone has birthdays… but my husband? Well, he really rocks this Fatherhood thing with his mad dad skills and deserves to be showered with love, praise and sloppy kisses in my opinion. As everyone who knows us is probably already aware, Barry is a recovering drug addict (long pause for dramatic effect). The 12th of August 2013 is his sober date. This year marks 4 years living the clean life. So the three Father’s Days we have had since then have really meant something in our family - because boy, do we have an awesome Daddy to celebrate! But here is the thing, Father’s Day gets me thinking about myself… I realize that this Daddy of ours is just as competent a parent (actually probably even more so) than I am. I busy myself cleaning up mess or straightening duvet covers, when I should be stopping to watch (better yet, video!) my husband on the floor with the kids making bead necklaces, having a pillow fight or getting his nails painted fuchsia pink. I should be forgetting the mess and joining in on the fun and laughter. What do I do instead? I run around tidying up my house for… no one. What a waste of time! Here is a man who absolutely adores and lives for his children. Who has a bucketload more patience than I do and who just wants to hang out with them. This man makes a better ponytail in Casey's hair than I can, and has perfected a mohawk in Luke's (using a vacuum cleaner! Now that's skill). He even remembers some of the steps for Casey's dancing and helps her practice. I mean, Hello? How awesome is that? So why do I criticize when the stove hasn’t been wiped down to my standard? He has flipping CLEANED the stove after cooking supper! Or when the couch cushions aren’t in the right order? He has picked up the cushions off the floor... he could have pretended he didn't see them in the first place. What about when the kid’s dirty bath water is left in the bath? He has bathed AND dressed our children! This man deserves a medal, not my critique. Even though my way is probably the correct way (I'm joking... kinda), I realized how controlling I am. I need to seriously chill out! Shame on me… What am I expecting from my life partner anyway? A male version of myself? Egh. Just thinking how difficult that person would be makes me all the more grateful for the one I have, thank you very much. This FD weekend was awesome. On Saturday we had enough milkshakes to make anyone sick, even me. Sunday we had wonderful family time with my own Daddy and a potjie (Which the kids are convinced is called a Boytjie and refuse to believe any different, even after much arguing with Barry. We decided we like Boytjie better anyway), and the evening was spent sitting on the carpet making some pretty epic bead keyrings, if I don’t say so myself. The only downer was when, out of no-where, my nose started gushing blood during our keyring making, all over our new rug - causing much hysteria. This episode ended with me sitting on the bathroom floor, blood everywhere;vomiting (I am SO squeamish) and crying for “ruining Father’s Day” … a pretty sorry sight I am sure. My hubby handled everything like a pro. He calmed the kids down, explained in detail what causes nose bleeds and managed to convince them that mommy was not dying (Thanks a lot Cinderella. Seriously, I can't even get a cold without my children worrying it will be the last time they see me when they leave for school!). He even cleaned up everything - which made the bathroom look a lot less like a crime scene. I later found out Barry was freaking out the whole time, as it dawned on him that he couldn’t raise our children alone (Errrr a bit dramatic I think. Maybe he has also watched Cinderella too much). We ended the day pretty emotionally drained, stuffing our faces with the tub of jelly sweets we got Barry as one of his presents. It was definitely a Father's Day for the books. (I apparently did not ruin Father’s Day and may have overreacted slightly)
