Excellent dad status

I'm happy to tell you that all three of my sisters and my mom think my husband is an "excellent dad". They haven't always thought this, however. But over the last couple of years when one of them comes to visit me or when we go to visit them, they have been very impressed with how much he helps me and the things he does with the kids.

One of my sisters has a husband who travelled a lot while their kids were little and she is a dominate person anyway so she "handled" most things by herself. Another one of my sisters was a single mom, dad was never even involved in the child's life. Then my other sister is also a working mother of three kids like me and our kids are about the same ages. Her husband is addicted to his television and is not very much help to her at all. She loves him and that is the life they have together (although she does admit she wishes he would help more).

Whenever we are all together and they see Mr. Man in action they are always commenting, like "I think it is so neat how much time he spends with the kids." or "Does he always help you bathe the kids and get them in bed?" or "It is really cool that he takes the kids with him like that."

I know I am lucky to have him (and of course he is very lucky to have me... hee hee) and I am very thankful too!

So, a couple days ago when we were analyzing our finances for the trip to Oregon for my niece's wedding, Mr. Man said "Is it totally out of the question for us to leave the kids with my mom and you and I fly out for the weekend?" I explained that the kids were pretty excited to be able to go with us and they would be really upset if we didn't take them.

Later that night, my mom called and I told her about his idea and how I didn't think that would work and she said "Oh. He will SO lose his 'Excellent Dad' status if he does that!".

We got a good laugh out of that one. I told Mr. Man what she had said and he admits he doesn't ever want to lose his Excellent Dad status with anyone, especially the kiddos!