This will surprise no one, but since I went back to work I really feel like Carl and I are doing a lot more equal parenting. He’s been simply amazing at taking over some things and it’s really great to watch.
I’m one of those people who tends to get up in the morning full of energy and I get overwhelmed with my mental to-do list as it’s the first thing that hits my brain: everything that has to get done! So it’s pretty good that I get out the door at 7 am first in a whirl of Getting Things Done. Carl, meanwhile, is calm with Noah; they often have a bath or make breakfast, slowly get Noah dressed and get his things together for school, and proceed in a leisurely manner towards his start at school at 8:30.
Then by 4 I’m fried and ready to leave work, so I do, and by then I am just aching to be with Noah, so I find so far that I don’t have a lot of trouble mentally dumping the professional stuff and just hanging out with Noah (and making dinner together, if I didn’t crockpot it). I get to put him to bed, which takes about an hour and is usually very cosy.
That really DOES sound lovely.
Around here, it seems as if the inequities get worse as each year passes. Hopefully my (soonish? please?) return to employment will help swing the pendulum back towards positions of greater strength….