Cup O’ Joe: A date with Dad

It was a rare, three-day weekend in our household as the nation celebrated Veterans Day on Friday.
Working for a newspaper, holidays are typically more of a nuisance than a blessing. It means the same amount of stories have to be collected and written in a fewer amount of days. Or in the case of Monday holidays, the Friday before becomes “Monday,” as everything that is typically done on Monday gets moved to Friday.
    Early in our marriage, my wife couldn’t understand why holidays created so much additional stress in my life. Thanksgiving and Christmas were the worst because we often wanted to travel to one or both of our parents’ homes to spend the holiday with them, but my work schedule rarely allowed it as there were too many things to do before the holiday arrived.
You see newspapers never just skip an issue. People still want to read the news no matter what the day is and rightfully so. News doesn’t stop just because it’s a holiday. Often times, that is when you get some of your best stories and photographs.
Even more rare, it was a weekend that saw me left in charge of the kids as my wife went away for a three-night women’s church group trip to Connecticut. When my wife first told me she was interested in taking the trip, I was supportive. But as the day for departure grew closer it occurred to me that I had never been left in charge of the children for more than a day.
Once this realization set in, a little bit of panic started to creep in as I started wondering if I would be able to handle an 8-year-old and 5-year-old for the long weekend by myself.
Discussing the matter in the office, it was suggested that I wasn’t “babysitting” for the weekend. I was doing “parenting.” And they were right. If anything, it gave me a better appreciation for all the work that single parents go through every day.
I found that the hardest thing was trying to juggle all of the housework that needed to be done — laundry, cleaning, etc. — with spending time doing activities with the girls. I also found that I should not take the children shopping with me because I have a bad tendency of not being able to say “no.”
I solicited suggestions from friends on Facebook for activities to do with the children. We played board games, “Barbies” and video games and watched a family movie with old-school “Jiffy Pop” popcorn.
I started thinking back to the Bill Cosby skit on parenting that I once found hilarious as a child back in the 1980s. The funny thing is, I now appreciate the Cosby skit on a whole other level, as I understand exactly what he was talking about. And yes, I could not get the tune “Dad is great … gave us chocolate cake” out of my head for most of the weekend. And no I did not give them chocolate cake. But I did compromise and let them have donuts Saturday morning.
By the time Saturday evening came, though, I was exhausted. Fortunately the end was in sight and my parents graciously offered to take the girls for a sleepover, giving me the house all to myself. Normally, that would mean watching a movie or playing a violent video game with the surround sound encompassing me on the couch.
Instead, I went to bed at 8 p.m. and slept for 12 hours. How single parents do this on a regular basis completely baffles me.
Joseph Cyr is a staff writer for the Houlton Pioneer Times. He can be reached at pioneertimes@nepublish.com or 532-2281.