Finding the Silver Lining

Our family is still without a permanent child care solution, but the chaos that has ensued has had the effect of shaking us out of our stale routines, with some unexpected benefits. Prior to this, we had settled into a pretty even (but disturbingly traditional) division of labor. I cooked, shopped and handled child related duties, Fritz did kitchen clean up and household maintenance.

For the past couple weeks we've been trading child care and transportation duties, shuttling the girls to school in the morning, then picking up Hazel from preschool and getting her to her temporary child care situation (the nice old lady from an earlier post), picking up Lily from school a few hours later, and finally collecting Hazel at 5. Thursday and Friday of this week I was completely off child duties due to out of town meetings. What's more, I had to work both evenings to catch up on work that I had fallen behind on due to all the mixed up days. When I popped in between meetings on Thursday evening, Lily begged me to quickly make dinner so they wouldn't have to settle for Fritz's standard, spaghetti. Rude and insensitive - and as it turned out, unfounded. Fritz expanded his culinary efforts significantly both evenings, to rave reviews. When I arrived home at 7:30 last night, I found grilled chicken breasts that had been marinated in a tasty rub involving lime rind(!) and "other stuff." Of course the microplane grater is also a woodworking tool, so this wasn't as much of a stretch as it might seem, but still...I was impressed. And the salad! Lettuce, arugula, broccoli, feta, onions and tomatoes. Awesome. Plus, he did laundry.

I noticed that after only two days of not being the one connecting with the kids' other lives at school and child care I felt out of touch with them - more aware that they have whole lives away from me. They feel a little less "mine." A loss for me, but the benefits to Fritz and the girls more than make up for it.