Who’s in charge here?

When the Captain of the Household gets taken out by strep throat, the main question is who is the next in command?

Can the First Lieutenant handle the pressure of jumping rank, and stepping in? Will the troops follow orders properly? Do we need to call in for reinforcements?

Well, it’s safe to say that in our household, this Captain is completely replaceable. In fact, I might even be unknowingly out-ranked by my husband. He can step in and bark commands like the best of them. And things get done. Kids fed. Kids bathed. Kids played with. All in all – no need for the Captain of the house at all. I can go back to being sick in bed.

However, there are a few occasions in which I am required to rise out of bed and make the arduous trip out of my room to get more Kleenex, find more cough drops, refill a water glass, or scrounge up some saltine crackers. It is in these moments, I find a few things amiss in the household. Things I cannot be bothered with – because I am too sick to care – but definitely noticed.

Like the fact that when Andrew got up from a nap, I heard Nathan ask him… ‘what would you like for a snack’. This was adventurous of him. No limiting options. Just putting it out there. And wouldn’t you know it, Andrew asked for chicken nuggets. Sure enough, chicken nuggets were served! I pretended not to notice. Just because I was curling up and dying in a corner… didn’t mean that the kids couldn’t whoop it up with the Best Dad Ever.

Or what about dinner. Last night’s menu included: hot-dogs, pizza, pretzels, green beans, chocolate pudding, and whipped cream. Way to sneak in the green beans buddy. I bet they didn’t notice that when you were applying the whipped cream to their hands and letting them shove it directly into their mouths.

And let’s not even talk about clothes… other than to say… why was my almost 3 year old, wearing my 1.5 yr olds pants? To be fair, it’s a 2T vs. a 3T… but the guy looked like he was wearing capri pants for goodness sake!

Definitely a few days with Super Dad has riled the troops up. I am pretty sure that they aren’t going to like it when the Captain of Doom comes back full-time. I may have to bust out the whipped cream as a bargaining tool.