Whew! That's finally over
The temporary semi-voluntary single dadhood ends in about two hours. The Wife and Young Daughter are on their way home from the Ozarks, and they're bringing her parents and lots and lots of holiday goodies. Can't wait, for any of it.

All things considered, it went pretty well. The Old Daughter and The Boy are really quite well-behaved; not any more or less so than the average child. I certainly wound up with better kids than I deserved, and most of the credit for that goes to my wife, who has been a stay-at-home mom since just before the Boy was born in March 1999.

I'm not going to get on a soapbox about two-income families; I recognize that many two-income families are quite necessary, and not just to have a luxury lifestyle. But I can also tell you that parenting and maintaining a house is a full-time, 10-plus-hour-a-day job which requires a very large portion of your mental energy. I'm not going to judge what works for other people. I can tell you that having Mom at home is the best thing for my kids, and really, the best thing for me, for two selfish reasons: 1/I don't have to worry about her job schedule interfering with my job schedule and 2/because among all of her other wonderful qualities, she makes really, really good kids.

It's been fun, being a full-time dad. Now I'm ready to turn it back over to a professional.