May the best hand win...

Sometimes I feel that parenting... and post-child marriage, I guess... is sort of like a poker game. You have to try to keep your cool and somehow manage to bluff your way into a winning game. It's give & take, always wondering what trick the other is going to pull out of their sleeve next.

Somehow, in my personal marriage game of hold 'em, my husband always seems to have the easy cards... he always manages to pull of that straight flush that gets him out of bedtime duty, bath duty, dinner duty, or early morning duty. I'm not quite sure how he works it, but time & time again, I am out-smarted into giving him the night off while I do it all.

Now, sure sometimes he does his "Man-work" days where he is out in the yard working or out in the garage tinkering around. During the "man days", it is strict instruction for me that he is doing his man labor, so by default, I am doing mommy labor all day.

Yes, he is working around the house, and I do realize that I need to keep my eye on the big picture here, but during these Man Days, I keep JD out of his hair so that he can catch up on his Honey Do list around the house. My, how great would that be if someone kept JD occupied all day long so I could do MY Honey-Do list, too. Mine seems to be growing in length as each day ticks by (and grows closer to JD's first birthday bash), but no one seems to be concerned with giving me some un-interrupted time to get things done. As a mom, I just need to multi-task and work it into my day. However, as a dad, he needs to escape from his son for hours of uninterrupted labor. How exactly did that happen??

Today is one of those Man Days... it sort of happened by accident that Jeremy pulled his ace out of the hole but he is crossing things off his list and I am inside with JD. Shortly after lunch, Jeremy comes in and asks, "Is there anything you need to get done today?"

Stunned at this question, I could rattle off a million things - 10 loads of laundry, vacuuming, sweeping, mopping, dishes, laundry shopping & a trip to Wal-Mart, but instead I reply, "Um, a shower would be nice."

"You want to shower today???" My husband questions me as if I just asked for a $500 afternoon shopping spree.

"Yes, a shower." And, with that, I was off to the bathroom - one of those very nice closed-door type of showers that mothers get to experience very infrequently. However, tick, tick tick... can't dawdle too long, before I was back on duty for pre-naptime routine, and the Man Work resumes.

I start to get mad, but then I realize that my husband just does not get it, and it's not his fault. He has never tried to carry an overloaded laundry basket upstairs with an 11 month old child who "thinks" he knows how to climb the stairs. Or tried to unload the dishwasher with an 11 month old child who makes a bee line right for the sharpest knife in the dishwasher faster than mommy can grab it. Or tried to unload groceries with an 11 month old child who screams after every time the refrigerator door slams in his face, mad that he was not quick enough to get to play in the fridge today.

It is hard. I love it, but it is hard, and some appreciation would be nice. Don't get me wrong, I am grateful that my husband is working around the house. But in this marriage world of give & take, it would be nice if I had a Woman Work day , too.