Comments about ‘Balancing act: Wife's absence brings fear, parenting opportunity’

LOL! This was fun to read. I just left my family for a few days to fare without me. They missed me!! It's validating to know that in so many cases, we moms are the "blood and guts" of the operation, whether we do "all that" or not! Often what we do goes unnoticed, until we don't do it! It really does feel like it takes a team to run a family. Thanks!

Advice. Do KD every evening for dinner

Kids adapt well to our bachelor ways, if they're something beyond toddler. They like to eat stuff out of the can. A few bucks can be turned into a school lunch. Dogs are tolerable of a much more variable diet than advertisers would have us think. Sorting the laundry means everything that will fit into the washing machine can go in the washing machine. And homework? Hey, the've got 'em at school for six hours a day, don't try to foist this stuff off on me.

"Dad's cooking? Ewww!" Kudos from one domestically challenged dad to another. I enjoyed the column!

I'm glad you wrote a follow-up column on this. Your original column made it sound like you had never lifted a finger around the house or helped with the kid's activities, and that's probably what prompted the mean comments from your readers. (Sometimes, a little literary license and hyperbole can backfire on a writer!) But both columns were fun and thought-provoking---thanks!