Father's Day

Recently I visited a friend who just gave birth to a baby girl. She looked great and I was happy for her, but I was surprised that her husband didn't look so great. He looked like he hasn't slept for days and he had a bad back.

I had this reflex thought, wondering why he was in such a bad shape when he wasn't the one who was... pregnant? And he wasn't the one doing the pushing and enduring the horrendous, out-of-this-world pain during labour (my friend didn't use the epidural). And of course, he wasn't the one waking up every two damn hours in the middle of the night, NIGHT AFTER NIGHT breastfeeding a newborn.

Shame on me, mother of two, for having such thoughts.

Many fathers are actually the unsung heroes in a family. No family can function effectively running on just the efforts by mothers. Amazing as mothers can be, we only have a pair of hands. As humans, mothers get tired, mothers fall ill sometimes, mothers need time off... Oh, and mothers sometimes get hungry in the middle of the night. What happens during times like these? It's papa to the rescue. I know of fathers who do laundry, cook kiddy meals, mop the floor, wash dishes, run errands, bottle feed babies, buy suppers, change diapers and act as chauffeurs on demand. Fathers also provide calm and reassurance when the mums get overwhelmed. Fathers are awesome playmates for the kids. They can throw babies high up into the air without harming them, tickle kids to death but then have the kids end up begging for more, and come up with great ideas for weekends. Fathers do catch vomit from sick kids, get up in the middle of the night for paracetamol feedings, and clean up soiled sheets too.

This father's day, I'm glad to have an awesome partner. And he's the reason why I can survive as a good-enough-parent.