Dad in Charge

On Saturday I went up north overnight to see my sisters band LOLAH rock out. Dad stayed home with the kids for over 24 hours alone.

It always makes me nervous when I leave him in charge because he does things so much differently than I would and I worry about the state of my house upon my return. This time it wasn't so bad, just a gigantic fort taking up the entire play area in the basement, which he tore down last night. He also had no idea how to do my daughter's math so I dealt with that for five hours last night. All in all though, he did a fabulous job.

These are the things he does differently than I do them.

-No yelling. I yell, because I need them to do stuff. He doesn't need to yell because he doesn't have       them do anything.

-No chores. Either he does everything or leaves it for me to do.

-No cleaning their rooms. Again, he leaves it for me to nag them about.

-No bedtime. It's a free for all and they get to stay up as late as they want. Yesterday my kids slept very late so bedtime was a nightmare!

-No food battles. They just eat whatever they want to, including cereal for dinner if they don't like         what he makes.

-Special snacks. He gives them things I don't like hot cocoa and entire bags of candy or chips, even if   the didn't eat a thing at dinner.

-Entire cans of pop. I always make them split 3 cans between the 5 of them on weekends. He gives       them their own.

-Late night movies. He will let them start a movie at 9 or 10. The latest I allow it is 8 on weekends.

-Builds forts with them. I find this hard work and it's just not fun, so I just don't do it.

-Plays differently in general. He builds Legos, plays with  Playdoh, plays tickle monster, zombie       tag, hide and go seek and video games. I do not do any of these.

He is just generally more lax with rules and gives them many more choices. It isn't the way I would do it, but I let him do it his way. Hey, whatever gets me time away, amiright?


What is different when Did is in charge at your house?