Sunday, April 27, 2008

Role Reversal

Yesterday I had to work 7a to 7p. It was a long busy day, I had the back hall assignment which is the worst room assignment in the ER, we call it the arm pit of the ER because it sucks so bad. There are 10 rooms on that side of the ER, so 2 nurses get 3 rooms each and 1 nurse gets 4. The nurse with the 4 rooms is usually the busiest. You wouldn't think one extra room would make that much difference, but it really does. We all have to take our turn in the back hall and yesterday was mine. I've had busier days there, but yesterday was pretty steady with patients all 12 hours. While I was at work Todd got to take care of Tony all day. He had his moms help for the first half of the day, and then he was on his own for the rest of the day until I got home.

I stopped by a friends house on the way home from work for a baby shower that was going on. I couldn't stay, but I wanted to say hi and drop off my gift before heading home to help Todd get Tony to bed. I finally got home at 8:30. Mind you Todd was calling me every 15 minutes while I was at the baby shower asking me when I was coming home, and saying things like, your not going to get to see him before he goes to bed if you don't hurry up. (I do the same thing to him, once I suspect he's done working, and I think he's just hanging out in the barn talking about work.)

When I came home I was pleasantly surprised to find the house was straightened up, stuff I had left laying around was all put away. I decided it was in my best interest to pretend not to notice. I guess I just didn't want to hear him say something along the lines of "If I can do it you can do it." I actually suspected he did it while his mom was watching Tony and he was home alone. I started asking him about his day, he said he got to take a nap over at his mom's while Tony was napping and how great it was, he couldn't remember the last time he had a nap. (Blah, blah blah, stop rubbing it in) Then he brought up the house, and asked if I had noticed he cleaned. Yes, I did, so then I said when did you do that? He said when Tony was taking his late afternoon nap. (Okay, time to chance the subject.)

After I put Tony to bed, I decided I was tired and just wanted to go to bed early after being up since 5:30 and working all day. Normally it's Todd who wants to go to bed early and I want to stay up and watch a little TV. Todd didn't seem all that tired. He pointed out that being home with Anthony all day, and getting to take a nap and all left him feeling pretty good, and he didn't feel the need to go to bed early. Wow, I should have never gone to work, he thinks I have it so easy being home all day. Now I'm never going to get any slack.

And then he said, "what's for dinner?"

So much for role reversal.

7 comments:

Tina in CT said...

Your answer should have been, "You were home all day so I thought you'd have prepared dinner."

Cecelia said...

That's too funny. I think most people could do it one day, it's the day after day after day that gets you down. Todd's really sweet to straighten the house and take such good care of Anthony. You're a lucky a lady.

Natalie said...

Adam tells everyone that he does all the house work, he even tells ME that. And he always wants dinner, when is he going to realize as long as I work the same as him, he's gotta cook his own food?!

Tina in CT said...

Way to go Natalie! A suggestion, cook together and do the clean-up together as then it's not so much of a chore.

Rachael said...

Derrick is very good about making dinner now. Lately, he makes it more than I, but it took many years of marriage to get him "trained". There were many times during residency, I'd be at the hospital late, scrubbed into surgery and he'd page me to ask me what we were doing for dinner! "Um, I don't know, let me think about it and I'll call you back," I'd tell him while the circulating nurse held the phone to my ear, since I was sterile. Men!

Paula said...

Oh no, our secret is out. Being a stay at home mommy is fun :)

PrincessGreen17 said...

In your defense, ONE day is different than EVERY day!