Lone parenting brings lessons learned, memorable moments

My wife was right.

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about a trip she and my oldest daughter were about to take, leaving me as a solo parent for our three younger children for a few days. I talked about my anxiety and my wife's response that she knew I would do well and shouldn't worry about it.

I was understating my parenting skills a bit in that column for comic effect (although not everyone got the joke, as I mentioned last week). However, I really was concerned about being the only parent at home for a few days. Not that I thought anything catastrophic would happen, but then again ...

I'm happy to report this week that everything went well. But I did learn a few things.

For starters, I usually don't worry about the children getting picked up from school at the right time, making it home OK and starting their homework. My wife handles that expertly. But as the lone parent, I did worry. I was often distracted at work as I wondered if everything was going well, and I took several breaks to text the friends who were helping us with child-care and school pick-up duties.

Through this, I gained new respect for single parents and what they face on a daily basis. I also realized how blessed we are to have great friends who were willing to help.

Furthermore, I was reminded how nice it is to have a parenting partner to handle the daily workload. While my wife was gone, from the moment I walked through the door after work until the last story was read, the prayers were said and the children were in bed, I was busy. And after they were in bed, I usually had some work to catch up on thanks to leaving the office a bit early.

Needless to say, this was pretty exhausting. Again, I've always been amazed at what single parents do on a daily basis, but my respect for them grew even more through this experience.

But my solo parenting wasn't all about work and exhaustion. Here's what else I learned:

Be your own parent. The children expected things to be different with Mommy gone. I decided to embrace that. For example, as a reward for getting all of their homework done in a timely fashion, I told them we could watch a movie together on a school night. They still got to bed on time, and they were thrilled at getting a "prize" for their efforts.