I recently had a great bus conversation with a respected director at work. She shared with me her philosophy on the time her husband spends with her son when she is traveling for work. Essentially, she stated that she can’t be upset about anything they do when she’s gone, even if she comes home and finds them “watching porn and eating lollipops.” Her son is six.
Her point: Being a single parent and taking care of the entire daily routine, alone, is exhausting and challenging… So, I’ve tried to adjust my perspective on Daddy’s evening entertainment: an episode or two of Handy Manny cartoons, sticky strawberry Nutrigrain bars and tennis shoes… on my tan couch. A far cry from porn and lollipops.
Jakey learns all sorts of interesting things when spending quality time with his Daddy. For example, one day I came home and they showed me a new game Daddy had invented: Kiss the Fly. There was a slow fly, nearing its eventual demise, buzzing back and forth along our big living room picture window. It was still too fast for Jake, but it did bring me pause as Jacob chased it with an open mouth, back and forth, back and forth. Apparently this was endlessly fun for Jake, and equally funny to his dad.
Jacob has also been practicing the splits. Both side and center.
During bath time, JJ now knows how to use the rubber ducky to make fart noises against his own chest.
And finally, this quality time leads to all sorts of new, useful vocabulary such as “armpit” and “uncle.” Apparently there are lots of reasons to say armpit on a daily basis. “Uncle” is another dad vocab word that a one-year-old should know in the likely event of an impromptu wrestling match.
Fortunately, my son hasn’t uttered anything that sounds like “porn” or “lollipops.” I’ll keep you posted.