Division of Labor

During the entire time Tom was working on selling the old house and LIVING there while the girls and I were in the new house, it never occured to me that our division of labor might change when he finally moved home.

I do the inside stuff and probably ninety percent of the parenting and he does the outside stuff and works most of the time he's not doing outside stuff.

It's been this way since forever and so why would it change?

Except...he works from home and I have this fantasy of walking into the house every afternoon with the girls and finding dinner on the table.

It's never going to happen, which is why it's a fantasy. But...how lovely that would be. Heck, I'd settle for one night a week. Just one.

But honestly, this isn't that big a deal. I may not actually enjoy cooking but I can do it. It's just kind of tedious after working all day and getting home around 6pm to have to figure out what everyone's going to eat. But parents all over the country deal with this daily so whatever, I'll get over myself.

On a completely unrelated topic, Tom has new email now that he's at home with us full-time. It's really dorky of me that I get such a kick out of the fact that my maiden name is part of his new email address. It's as if he took my name over seven years into our marriage.

I know, a silly thing to find so amusing, but...okay, I'm silly.

I will give credit where credit is due. Yesterday, Alyssa's first day back at gymnastics after a month off, Tom brought the girls to town for me. Typically, I would have driven the 14 miles to my mom's, picked them up and driven the 14 miles back into town with them for the gymnastics class. This time? I drove two blocks to McD's to meet them and then about six blocks with the girls to the class. It was lovely.

Of course, he told me not to get used to the luxury. But what the heck? I'll take those little moments of kindness when I can get them.

In the end, I think we're both okay with our division of labor. And if we get to the point where we're not okay? We'll talk. We'll compromise and we'll work it out. I like that I know we can do that. It makes the monotony of laundry a little more bearable.

But...what the heck am I going to make for dinner tonight?