Last week my wife Cathy’s Uncle Dave unfortunately passed away. He was a great guy and I enjoyed the time I was able to spend with him. He lived out in California and fortunately my wife Cathy has the opportunity to go out to California for his services. She left tonight and will not be back until sometime on Sunday. I am going to chronicle my days as a single Father.
This marks the first time my wife has ever been away from our girls. With the exception of sleepovers and on our 10th Anniversary where we treated ourselves to a hotel room for the night my girls have always gone to bed and woke up with my wife being around. In fact with the exception of a rafting trip I took six years ago and was gone for 3 nights neither of us has been away from our girls for any extended period. I have no problem admitting that my wife is WAAAAYYYY more equipped to deal with the girls by herself than I am.
My wife left shortly after dinner and every girl in the house cried, including her. Mia cried the least which was expected. Short story, when my girls were younger Julia always had a horrible time when we dropped her off anywhere. They use to stay with a sitter during work hours and just to mess with Julia I would tell her I was going to go home without her and she would throw a fit and cry. Ok, don’t judge me; you know you’ve all made your child cry for your own entertainment. One day I decided to mess with Mia. I put Julia in the car while Mia played in the front yard and actually drove away. I went around the corner and she was still playing without a care in the world.
Tonight shouldn’t really count, by the time my wife left (she made dinner) it was only a couple of hours before bedtime. There have been times when she went out and they went to bed. Of course it is different because they know she won’t be coming home. My youngest Olivia is already complaining she cannot fall asleep because Mommy isn’t home. Of course she complains almost every night she can’t sleep for some one reason or the other.
For the next several nights the chances of my daughters having a complete and balanced meal? Slim to none and slim left town about 3 weeks ago. Tomorrow? Hoagies, Thursday? Spaghetti (a Daddy classic, wife made the sauce of course). Friday? Take out (I’m pushing for Chinese). Saturday? I haven’t gotten that far yet. Well night one is winding down, no one is injured but the morning presents the real challenge. I’m not a morning person and my wife usually has to wake me up. Let’s hope I can get them to school and me to work…on time.
Dad and his three girls 
Good luck John — and the girls. I know you can all handle Cathy’s brief absence, but it won’t be easy!