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A Father’s Day Celebration of 26 Remarkably Average Husbands

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At the beginning of quarantine, I saw a ton of jokes about how the divorce rate was going to skyrocket after families spent all this time locked up together. I’ll admit that I wondered the same. But the truth is, I’ve watched Mike take on a ton of extra responsibilities over the last few months, and not begrudgingly. He’s embraced new routines with a can-do attitude and a sense of humor that has made things easier for our entire family. And dare I say it— FUN.

I know I’m not alone in thinking this.
 
In honor of Father’s Day, I wanted to talk about the good things that have come out of spending all this additional time with our husbands and partners. I asked readers to share how the dads in their lives have made it easier at home, or done things that surprised them. I’m sharing some of my favorite responses on the blog!

A Celebration of 26 Remarkably Average Husbands for Father’s Day

1) “For the first ten months of our daughter’s life, my husband was gone twenty days a month. He then switched jobs so he could be home everyday, but he still commuted for four hours. He rarely got home in time for bed. Quarantine has given him so much time with our 4 1/2-year-old daughter, and I am so thankful. Their relationship has blossomed so much. He’s handling bedtime and special activities now. They play video games together. It has taken so much pressure off me and I am thrilled that they are getting this time to fully bond.” – Jenna

2) “Our daughter’s 10th birthday is today and my husband HELPED ME DECORATE LAST NIGHT! He’s never, ever helped to decorate the house. He was home for the first two weeks of quarantine and he did schoolwork with the kids alongside me. I think he saw how much we had to do. Even though he is back to work, he comes home and does the dishes or stops at the store for us. We’ve been going on a ton of family bike rides as well.” – Lauren

3) “My husband designed and built this new swing set for our kids! He’s now only working Monday through Wednesday, and Thursday through Sunday is spent working on projects around the house.” – Jessica

4) “My husband was furloughed, but I was still working from home. He completely took over homeschooling for our daughter. He got really into it, creating PE activities that got them out of the house during my most important calls, and making sure she had a schedule of her Zoom teacher meetings. It was such a relief for me to be able to concentrate on work knowing that he had our daughter’s education under control. He went back to work a week before school ended, and I was a hot mess without him.” – Krystal

5) “When quarantine had just started back in March and our gym closed, we started slowly buying workout equipment and creating a home gym in our garage. My husband and I have a really fun relationship. We joke and laugh a lot. On Saturday morning, he was mowing the lawn and finished as I was in the garage doing my workout. He stopped and said, “I’m really proud of you.” It was such a small thing but it meant the world to me. Silly little story, but it’s one of the most impactful things to have happened during this extended time of togetherness.” – Jodi

6) “My favorite memory has been setting up a tent in the house, which was all my husband’s idea. We’ve used it as a place to play, relax, get quiet time – and I’ve even used it for Zoom meetings.” – Amatise

7) “I’m not a religious person at all, but my husband is a devout Catholic. At the beginning of quarantine, I asked him if he’d pray with me before bed, and we’ve prayed almost every night together. It’s given me a lot of peace which I hadn’t expected, but am very grateful for. He’s also kept the kids busy on weekends (he’s an essential worker) so I can have a bit of a break.” – Briza

8) “My husband is a teacher for high school kids. He has been working his butt off to support his students. I have basically been single parenting during the week. When he is present, he makes sure he is taking our son out to give me time to breathe. He made sure I filled out paperwork for summer camp (I need encouragement to do stuff like that). We have had exactly one fight the entire 97 days. We celebrated my 40th birthday, Mother’s Day, our anniversary, and now Father’s Day. We’ve been together for 18 years. We got this.” – Kathy

9) “I was sad that I wouldn’t get Mother’s Day artwork from the kids’ daycare, or get to have my Mother’s Day tea with them. My husband surprised me (during breakfast in bed) by bringing me this handprint artwork he made for me. It made me unreasonably happy and it will definitely be getting framed and hung up forever!” – Kristen

10) “I’m a single foster mom, so I don’t have a husband. But my own dad has completely stepped up in helping me with my son. He has taken him on bike rides for ‘recess,’ helped homeschool him, and watches him daily so I can have an hour to myself to workout. Without him I don’t know if I would have been able to get through quarantine.” – Molly

11) “The first morning in quarantine, my husband got dressed up (nicer than he would for work), took a picture and captioned it ‘All dressed up with nowhere to go.’ He has taken it upon himself to dress up as a character or in a silly way with a caption EVERY DAY since. He is on day 87 of crazy dress up mornings.” – Lisa

12) “After being deployed for two months in response to the pandemic, my husband was just as excited to be home as we were to have him here! He has done all the cooking and laundry, even while still working remotely. He’s also spent so much quality time with our girls and stepped up our theme night dinners. This is a picture from ‘Make Up Night.'” – Shana

13) “My husband works a lot of hours, but now those hours are worked in our guest bedroom. It’s been so nice to have him around. All of our meals are together and work finishes at 5:00 so he can hold Japanese class for our sons. It’s been amazing to have him home. He’s also taken over all dishwashing on the weekends and often tells me to take a rest or do something fun by myself (which is usually going on a walk because, let’s face it, there’s not a whole lot to do right now).” – Anna

14) “My husband was able to spend more time with our newborn son. They have a great bond and he even does the night shift. He has been able to help me with everything and has seen all of our son’s milestones so far.” – McKenna

15) “My husband usually has an hour commute, but working from home means he can get up with the toddler in the morning and give this pregnant mama an extra hour of sleep. He also takes little breaks throughout the day and races the big kids around the outside of the house. He comes downstairs and makes eye contact with one of the kids and they know it is on! The kids absolutely love it! He has worked so hard to make sure we are all safe during this strange time. That has included fixing up our backyard so the kids have more ways to be entertained at home. I don’t know if the kids fully understand how hard he has worked, but I hope they remember the summer their dad made their backyard extra fun and raced them around the house.” – Mariah

16) “Spending extra time together has been the brightest spot through all of this, and my husband loves that we have been stuck at home with time to get stuff done. One goal is to build a pool deck. I had no idea how we’d actually accomplish this by ourselves, but one afternoon a trailer truck pulled up and the driver asked if I knew Kris. I told him I’m married to Kris, so I guess that counts. He gave me a thumbs up and proceeded to unload an excavator in our driveway. My husband works in construction and got a deal on a rental. He came home so excited. He and the kids spent a happy weekend digging up the space for our deck!” – Sarah

17) “I can’t even fully list the amazing things. First, he moved out for a month to protect our infant while he was working in the ER. He’s worked a ton of overtime so he could be present when he came back home. He has taken over Zoom preschool lessons, cooks a ton, threw an amazing Mother’s Day weekend, set up a ‘Quaran-Team Camp’, bought and assembled a giant kiddie pool, enlisted his mom to help for the first six weeks, tries to take our older kid out during the baby’s naps on weekends so that I can nap – and the list goes on. It feels impossible to parent and work full-time, but he makes it look easy.” – Elyssa

18) “All the quantity of time together has really increased the QUALITY of our time together. My husband is much more relaxed at home without the constant stress and worries of work. We are both teachers so we were still teaching our students and our own kids, but we started taking daily walks and we have implemented family movie nights. He is also more social with me and silly with our three boys than when we are tired from a long work week. I thought we would drive each other crazy (and there is some of that!) but we are laughing and being present with each other, which feels pretty damn good.” – Rachel

19) “My husband was away at military training from February to the end of May. It was a long four months, but since he’s been home I’ve had our second baby and he’s been cooking, cleaning and doing laundry. He’s also been putting our first born to bed at night, and keeping him occupied while I feed the little one. God, I love that man.” – Ellen

20) “Even though we both work outside the home, my husband has the longer commute, so I pretty much always made weeknight dinners. Since we’ve both been working from home, he’s taken on almost all of the cooking, and it’s been such a treat to stroll into the kitchen at 5:30 and ask, ‘What’s for dinner?’ We have enjoyed the slower evenings together without the rush of school pickups, commutes, and kids’ activities. Sometimes the kids even leave us alone long enough for the two of us to enjoy a glass of wine in the kitchen together while he cooks. It’s been lovely.” – Elizabeth

21) “My husband has finally had time to work on all the little projects he wants to do. He has been teaching our teenager so many things and getting him involved. They are currently removing, sanding, and staining all the trim in the house. They finished reassembling an old oak entertainment center so that it will work with our flat screen TV. Our front garage has all new shelving. They put in a flower garden and removed old dead bushes from the landscaping and replaced them with new plants. I’ve gotten to watch him be the dad that he was meant to be because he actually has some free time.” – Cassi

22) “He’s been annoying as heck, but I wouldn’t have made it through without him. He picks a song of the day and sings it on repeat in the most annoying voice he can think of. He talks in accents 24/7. And so much more. BUT he has made dinner almost every night. He’s helped with my son’s schoolwork everyday. He takes the kids on walks/rides multiple times a week. He plays with the boys and keeps everyone’s spirits high. He watches the kids while I do my school work. He goes back to work on Thursday and I’m not ready! But I absolutely value the time that we’ve had with him.”  -Rhiannon

23) “My quarantine started two weeks before I gave birth to my second baby, and this time together has been amazing! Both our daughters have enjoyed their dad so much! He plays, sings, dances and makes a big effort to have the best time with our oldest (which lets me get some rest). One of my favorite moments was when I caught him and our 17-month old daughter playing in her castle. I don’t know how he made it in!” – Maria

24) “My husband truly kept me going in the beginning, and he pushed me to find a new normal. Together, we made plans for projects, got them done, provided each other with opportunities to get some alone time, and found a way to work from home. He got me to plan wine nights via video with my friends, and find creative ways to ‘see’ my parents. I honestly don’t think I could have done the first few weeks without him. We’ve ended up having a lot of fun together. And I’ve gotten to see him just kicking ass at work, and honing his grilling skills – he’s perfected our favorite kind of burgers, and made some amazing tacos, burritos, pork, and in his words ‘stunt BBQ’. Quarantining with him has really driven home that I picked the right husband.” – Casey

25) “This has been the best thing that’s happened for us since we had our twins three years ago. Our daughter has a chronic medical condition and we live abroad, thousands of miles from my own family. Needless to say, I’ve been a bit on edge. But having him in the attic where I can easily ask him to schedule a break to help me has made us more connected than ever. His days are still packed full, but we are able to have a new more interconnected balance than we ever had before. He switches from work to family mode the minute he leaves his home office, and has shown an unbelievable amount of calm and strength through the entire situation. I bought him a big gift for Father’s Day this year – he deserves it!”- Anna

26) “I can’t really point to one specific thing because he’s always pretty great, and we have always worked as a team to parent our three boys. But I don’t know how many times I looked at him and just felt so grateful that if I had to live through a pandemic, it’s with him by my side. He’s just a good friend. I mean, obviously he’s more than that! But going through life, especially when it’s really freaking hard, is so much better when it’s with your best friend.” – Vanessa

Share your #1 Quarantine Dad stories in the comments!

The post A Father’s Day Celebration of 26 Remarkably Average Husbands appeared first on Mommy Shorts.


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