Away

Earlier this week I was gone for three nights from my kids (4 really, since they were already asleep when I got home on the forth day). It was the first time I've been away since taking on this at-home-dad role (the place I was at during that time kept referring to me as a house-husband). When I found out I had to go away for several days, my first fear was how to make it happen. I knew my wife couldn't take time off, we can't really afford to put them in day care right now and we don't really have a strong baby-sitting system around us yet. Thankfully, my father was able to come up during my time away.

And things ran smoothly, of course. Not that there was worry of that. I'm a little more aware of the need to make sure the boys understand that the way I expect them to behave with me is how I expect them to behave with other adults (whether it be my wife, grandparents, teachers or whoever). It's good to know everything can keep running while I'm away. It's also good to know I'm needed and missed.

The main goal of parenting, from my perspective, of course, is to train your children up in the way they should go, so to speak. For them to be able to do well in life on their own without having to constantly be parented. (For our family, their is a religious element of trying to raise them to be able to follow God whole-heartedly.) I guess being away was a good reminder of that, that the boys can obey, do the right thing and have fun when I'm not around.