Parenting differences...

Marcus and I parent in different ways.

Neither way is better than the other but we just have very different styles. (And Marcus' is probably often more fun for the kids).

I think, because Marcus was a stay at home dad this has influenced their behavior in interesting ways. Have you all noticed that guys play different.

With my youth group last year I had 10 teenage boys and 3 teenage girls. For some reason the boys could not get enough of wrestling and playing physical high intensity games. I hadn't ever really be around large quantities of teenage boys (I have 1 brother and 4 sisters) and this was an interesting discovery for me, and at times perplexing.

Anyways, I believe that a direct result of Marcus being a stay at home dad is evident in how they play. For example, both my kids love to wrestle. From the time they could move Marcus taught them that if a person lays on the floor then their fair game.

This is fun for him, not so much for me.

Another thing that cracks me up is that Eli and Emerson have a ton of balls and they are encouraged to throw them (this was put in place because Eli struggles with a tendency to throw everything).

So from the time they were young they've know what catch is and that you throw balls back and forth. When their cousin of the same age was here in November they tried to play catch with her and the balls just kept hitting her in the face. My sister explained that she had never played catch before haha.

Another example, Marcus has literally worn holes in the knees of several pairs of pants. Once again since our children have been mobile Marcus has been on his hands and knees chasing them, playing puppy, and all sorts of other things.

I on the other hand have not worn holes in the knees of any of my pants.

Today, was another clear example of our differences.

I came home at 4:30 from a meeting and the house was quiet, no one ran to greet me at the door (which is unusual). I found Eli and Emerson in the bathtub.

When I asked why the were taking a bath at such a random time of day, Marcus casually mentioned that they had been running through the sprinklers. In February...

Marcus was messing with our sprinkler system earlier today to try and get the timers right and I guess while I was gone they turned on and the three of them decided February 23rd was as good of time as any to play in the water.

It's a good thing we live in CA, haha.