One of the many reasons I married Kevin is that he's quite simply a different breed. He's not like most men and I witness his wonderful differences almost every day.Harmon is battling a bit of a cold right now and was up coughing most of the night. When the alarm went off this morning, Kevin didn't hesitate to volunteer to be the one to stay home with him. He didn't give me some line about his job being more important (even though he IS the breadwinner and his job IS more important) or about missing some big-deal meeting. More often than not, Kevin is the one to stay home and take care of everything AND is usually more than happy to do it.
After his decision to stay home this morning, I started thinking about all the other things he does. Ever since we met back in 1994, he never has assumed anything is a woman's job or a man's job. He cooks, cleans, bakes, does laundry – all those things. We split all the Harmon tasks and all the household tasks right down the middle. Even when I'm home with Harmon on Fridays (when I really tend to feel guilty because the laundry isn't done or the dishwasher isn't unloaded), he ALWAYS tells me that Fridays are my days with Harmon and I should enjoy them rather than putting him aside to do household chores.
He's never once demanded I have a certain dinner ready at a certain hour or told me that something was "my job." He drops off and picks up Harmon at day care on Tuesdays (we then split that duty on Thursdays). He even gets pissed when there aren't baby changing tables in men's restrooms! He hates that it's ALWAYS assumed that the father does nothing! He just always is willing to help with whatever needs to be done – no questions asked.
Of course, there are tasks we handle that MIGHT fall along Neanderthal, I mean traditional, gender lines. He always takes the trash out and deals with the cars and I always deal with Harmon's wardrobe and handle the bills (mostly because Kevin's writing is damn near illegible) but, for the most part, we are in this together – 50-50 – and I am SO lucky to have it that way!
