Monday, June 11, 2012

Men and Women Parent DIfferently

I can usually get all of my errands done during the day after I get off work and before the kids are home from school. Sometimes, no matter how well I try to plan,  it just doesn't happen that way.

Recently I noted that our milk and bread supply was dipping to dangerously low levels and had to make an evening run to the grocery store after Mr. A had come home from work.

"What do I need to do with the kids?" he'd asked me.
"All you have to do is put them to bed." I answered as I walked out the door, shopping list in hand.

When I'd returned not more than two hours later, I was greeted by a slightly nervous Mr. A.  
"I think you should check on M" he said.  "When I went to check on him, he felt warm and he was clammy. He may have a fever. I hope he's not sick"

When you have a child with the lengthy medical history like M has, you take the word, "fever" very seriously. I put my bags haphazardly on the counter and made a beeline for M's room.  

Mr. A was right, M was certainly clammy.  His forehead was beaded with sweat and his damp hair was sticking to his head.  I pulled back the covers, and as soon as I did, I let out an audible sigh of relief.

Mr. A had dressed M in fleece pajamas.  It had been almost 90 degrees that day.  M wasn't sick, he was slow-cooking.

"It's a million degrees outside...why did you put him in fleece?"
"I didn't know. They were in the drawer.  I thought it would be okay."

I tried to wake M so I could get him into cooler pajamas, but M was sound asleep. I peeled the fleece bottoms off and took off the blankets and let M sleep with just a sheet in his shirt and underwear.

The next morning, I was folding laundry in the living room, which happens to be next to M's room.  I could hear M beginning to stir and knew he'd be up soon.  

Instead of his usual, "Good morning, Mama!" I heard an incredibly  freaked out M shouting, "Oh no! Oh no!  My pants!  My pants are gone!  Where my pants, Mama?"

I found this to be hysterical and I called Mr. A to tell him what M had said.  He wasn't nearly as amused as I was.  He didn't get it so I called my dear friend and my mother and both responded with a hearty belly laugh.  Women just see things a bit differently than men do I suppose.



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