It's Been Awhile

Over the last week or so it's been pretty crazy at my house.  My wife was out of town for a week on vacation in Florida and my grandmother will be visiting in a couple of days so there has been nothing but commotion. Although my wife was on vacation, I wasn't and I still had to work and make sure my three daughters were properly schooled and entertained.  There's also the matter of various practices and rehearsals that they needed to get to.  It hasn't been easy, but I've managed a little better than I had expected I would.  I did realize something about the dynamics of our family though, my role as a dad is really only for support.  What does that mean?  Well, it means that the kids don't really expect me to make any decisions alone, they don't expect me to know how to make any major decisions without the direction of my wife.  I remember watching Bill Cosby's "Himself" stand up comedy show and not understanding how an intelligent, strong and capable man could be reduced to the role of the bumbling village idiot just by becoming a father.  I thought that with my wife out of town I would be the final word, I thought for some strange reason that being the only parent in the house would give me the final say on things.  Not so much.  I found that my kids seem to think I don't know anything.  I heard the question "Do you want to call Mom and ask her?" so many times, I started to become unsure of myself!  I thought that before I was married with kids, I was a pretty smart guy who knew how to take care of himself.  I thought that I was a pretty capable individual that could handle most situations, it seems that I was mistaken.  I already know my wife thinks I'm about as useful as a bag of wooden nickels, but I thought at the least my kids thought I was a smarter than the average bear with all the helping of the homework and the home-schooling and all.  Maybe I'm just supposed to be the work mule and bring home the bacon while keeping my mouth shut...that can't be right!