The best Valentine’s day

Image by Jill Wellington from Pixabay

Yesterday was one of the best days ever. I had to take a full day and take care of my sick little two-year-old. Usually, me and my wife try to do some damage control by sharing it, but this time she was completely swamped, and I wasn’t, for the first time in forever. Previous days when I have attempted sick kid leave, I have always had to take some phone calls or listen in on some meeting on one ear. But finally, I could just let it all go for a day. It really makes a difference.

I know that the best remedy for any illness is sleep. So after I had taken care of the regular morning duties, waved of the other son and wife, I sneaked back into the boys room and laid down on the other bed. He slept until 10:00, which is an official new world record. Close to twelve hours uninterrupted. Then we had some breakfast and watched a movie together on the sofa, in the new compact living home cinema we designed during Christmas. After that it was lunchtime, and then he told me “Now I want to play with cars dad. COME ON!” How are you supposed to say no to that?

We built some racetracks for our little cars, train tracks with a small battery powered train and created words and built stuff with the wooden blocks with letters on them. Next, time for a snack and a dog walk. I had secretly planned to go and grab some flowers for the wife, and I told Isak that we must now go and grab a present for mum. He instantly insisted that everyone needed a present each. Well, why not? We went to the store and grabbed a beautiful big rose and some chocolate making sure that everyone got something. It was a great success when the others arrived back home. A little goes a long way. Especially when you have a wife that has been super stressed for several days.

Afterwards, I felt a sense of deeper connection with my boy. I think it is a very healthy exercise to plan some alone time like we did, perhaps once a month or something like that. The relationship needs to grow in other settings too when the others aren’t around. We have our third kid on the way now and that’ll reshape the family group dynamic from the ground up. Before Isak, Elis was much more attached to mom. But after a little road trip together with dad for a couple of days, and a baby brother in 2021, that changed. Now he almost always wants to read the bedtime stories with me instead of mom. I wonder if I will see a similar effect when moms focus is totally redirected to the newborn in about ten weeks?

Anyway, for all the dads out there I can highly recommend spending some time one-on-one if you have several kids. Focus is a good thing. I have another thing to look forward to with my other five-year old petrol-head. We must go flying to Stockholm over the weekend later this year, just me and him. Perhaps stay at a hotel and go visit some museums, preferably ones with dinosaurs and machines. These things create memories that’ll stick with you forever. Don’t miss the opportunity if you have it. You don’t have chances, you take them.