Mr. Mom

I hate this. I really just don't like having to do my wife's job. Her job is hard! Maybe it is our different personalities or our gender, but I do not enjoy being the stay-at-home anything. My wife certainly wasn't sure about it when she quit her job of 8 years in 2001 but she has truly found her gifting. The patience required to get three kids moving in the morning and the schedules on where each needs to be and what they need when they arrive and feeding the things! They're like a horde of locusts eating all in their path and leaving giants crumbs and wrappers behind! Just cleaning up their dishes is horrible. My eldest the other morning decided to take his morning applesauce that comes in a single serving cup and put it into a coffee cup that needs to be washed. And you must understand, that was my very first day! So I don't like it at all, I am not jealous, I am happy to go to my various jobs and accomplish taasks there. Well, I'm laying here doing a lot of not sleeping tonight and I got to thinking about joking with my wife years and years ago that if we ever had children she'd still have to work to live in our house. What an arrogant butt I was! These are my children. They are super important to me and the number one thing I can give them to help them grow up well-adjusted and productive members or our world is a father that values his wife. And valuing her enough that she stays at home raising them is a biggie. My wife has the opportunity to be there with the first scab and the first lost tooth and when somebody got a cut. Sometimes I'm jealous she gets the firsts, but that is just one of the perks of her job. One of the artists on my iPod is Gretchen Wilson and she says it all in her song Full Time Job

I'm a mother
I'm a lover
A chef, a referee
I'm a doctor and a chauffeur
Seven days a week
I ain't askin' for a medal
Yeah I know you work too
I just like a little credit
Where credit is due
It's the hardest gig I've known

I've changed. I no longer poke fun at my wife for her work. No, it's not even that easy. I don't just not poke fun at her but I really get agitated with some folk. They'll ask me what I do for a living normally with a

"What do you do, Mr. Buckley?"

And I answer that, but I'm watching. The next question out of their mouth could make it or break it for them...lots of times these are salesmen. So pay attention, you salespeople out there, you treat my wife with respect and you still have me on the end of the hook, but you come back with a

"Do you work, Mrs. Buckley?"

you can just pack it in right there because we are done. Oh, stick around because I will begin the lecture about how my wife works harder than either of us do since 13-hour days pretty much don't sound like fun to me. If they really got under my skin, we could get into what her worth is as all the careers listed in Gretchen's song, but my wife wins just on hours alone! I am working 40 hours a week for the year with right around three or four weeks off a year because of holidays and sicknesses and vacations...ooh, don't get me started on does my wife work!