The difference between mom and dad- # 546

A is totally the Disneyland dad at our house. He sweeps in and either surprises the kids at school/daycare or slips in overnight. He plays with the kids so I can clean and do laundry. He gets sent to all the birthday parties, soccer tryouts, and scout events. He works on the big school assignments and I take care of the daily homework. It works out for us this way because by the time he gets home, I just want a break from the kids. And he is more creative on projects than I am- after college, graduate school, and a 10 year career in summer camps and educational events I am DONE with crafts, poster boards, dioramas, decoupage and anything involving building with dry pasta. But A, he will tackle it once assigned.

Most recently, the biggest little kid came home with a project to research and animal and create a habitat in a shoe box. I immediately passed on the project and assigned it to A to assist in completing. All went well until we realized on Sunday night that it was not due AFTER the following weekend, when they had planned to complete it, but the Friday before. And A was gone Monday-Friday. Which meant I had to finish up the project. On top of the regular homework, chores, lunch making, and dinner feeding that normally occurs on a weeknight. A did the leg work, decided on an animal with S and bookmarked some websites for research. All went well until we had to go hunt down a plastic replica of our animal for the habitat. Which entailed me driving around town, in commute traffic, with three kids in tow, to multiple stores looking for a specific animal. Which might not have been so bad if it was the weekend and just the A and S. But it was a pain. And I admit, there was some moaning and complaining on my part. But, the animal was found, painted the appropriate color with some nail polish (see, everyone needs green and orange nail polishes at some time in their lives!) and placed in the appropriate habitat.

It made me realize how differently we approach projects. Upon finding out the assignment, I, the ever practical, tactical, long range thinking mom, would have instantly cataloged my brain Rolodex for animals and habitat items we have on hand, calculated the easiest to assemble project and then gently steered S toward that animal. A on the other hand, immediately thought "hmm, what's the coolest animal we could do?" Without regard to what we had on hand or how hard the items might be to come by.

Thank goodness we each have unique strengths, otherwise each of our kids would be doomed to turning in the same projects each time they were assigned as they progressed through the grades. And no one would be wearing clean clothing.