Mr Mom again

160 years ago, Nathaniel Hawthorne (yes, that Nathaniel Hawthorne) was left in sole charge of his five year old son while his wife visited her parents. His journal entries have been turned into the under-appreciated book, Twenty Days with Julian and Little Bunny, by Papa, offering "a meticulous, blow-by-blow account of a man taking care of a young child by himself." Hawthorne spoke for all parents since Adam when he lamented, "it is impossible to write, read, think, or even to sleep, so constant are his appeals to me in one way or another."

Hawthorne had some advantages (his full-time cook and housekeeper) and a big disadvantage (no television). But fathers today still approach watching young children for days alone with the same trepidation. ("Every father should have some alone days with his kids," Rachel comments. "It's good for you.")

But when Rachel left for a long weekend in Washington for her great grandmother's funeral, I wasn't worried. Partly this was because I had Rachel give me a long list of activities before she left (although she ended up taking the zoo and Sea World passes with her). Partly because I was an Experienced Dad, no stranger to the rigeur of being harried to my wits' end. But mostly because Rachel was taking Isaac, so I would only have the older two. Two kids is easy... compared to three.

What does half a week with Dad look like?

We went to McDonald's every day, except Sunday. (But, I add, "only" once a day: breakfast Thursday, lunch Friday, and dinner Saturday.) I've said before that one of the drawbacks of San Antonio vs Draper is that McDonald's is the only fast food with a play area, so it was a near-monopoly. Bonus: free wi-fi, so I even got some work done.

I bought Melissa some flowers -- pink ones -- Thursday morning when we went grocery shopping. She was extremely pleased, and insisted they go on her dresser so she could see them in the morning.

Without Isaac to watch in the morning, I had pretty light duty on school days: after getting Matthew ready and out, Melissa usually wouldn't get up for another hour, and she had a great attention span for art at the table -- suitably protected with newsprint -- or reading games on the netbook. After picking up Matthew from school the fights^W sibling interaction would start and then it was substantially less peaceful.

When Melissa spilled red soda on her green skirt at lunch, I threw it out rather than attempting stain removal. It's a good thing Rachel was only gone a few days or her daughter might not have had many clothes left. Melissa spills very near to every single meal, no matter what kind of drinking vessel you give her. (And yes, it was an older skirt with the flowers peeling off it, for the record.)

Matthew and Melissa got chocolate chip cookies whenever they asked for some. But I did not neglect nutritional discipline: "you have to finish your pudding before you can have cookies!"

With Isaac gone, I could leave headphones or DVDs out and be reasonably sure they would be where I left them, intact, when I came back for them. This was awesome.

Unlike last time, I didn't save all the cleaning for the day Rachel got back. But, also unlike last time, the kids can actually help with the picking up now. At a glacial pace, granted, but with my laptop at hand, glacial progress is good enough; they picked up the downstairs on Friday and the upstairs on Saturday. I still got to do anything more complex than putting toys away, though.