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I’m the CEO of six companies, a family man, and father to three sons under the age of six. My wife stays at home and manages the house while I run my companies and work during the day. Last weekend, she left me, all alone, with three boys at our home while she went on a girl’s trip to see her BFF in California.
My youngest boy, Colton, is only four months old. My other two boys Asher and Jax are four and five years old. The older two are no big deal to handle. They wash and feed themselves and pretty much do their own thing.
The little guy, though, that’s a different story.
Since I work crazy hours, my wife wakes up and feeds Colton every day. She’s so awesome, I have not had to wake up once in the middle of the night to tend to him since he was born. So, I was about to embark on a serious journey with the youngest one, and I was honestly a little nervous.
My wife travels a lot. We live in Texas, but she’s from Arizona and before she became pregnant with Colton, she would fly out to see her girlfriends and family quite often. When she was pregnant with Colton, her traveling went on hold. This was her very first trip alone since he was born.
I’d never even fed Colton before she left town. I had no clue how to mix formula or how often he eats. Sure, I hold him and play with him, but I had never fed him or stayed up with him. Like I said, my wife is friggin’ awesome!
To say I was anxious is an understatement.
When I arrived home from work on Friday, I was handed off the boys from my assistant. From the second she gave me Colton, it was on. I was nervous and scared that I was about to be in for the longest weekend of my life.
The first night we ordered pizza it gave me food poison! I was sick as a dog with three demanding kids not making my first 24 hours easy. I pushed through it, though. Colton was a great kid, and he’s 99 percent happy so all I had to do was get off the toilet long enough to feed him.
I posted on Facebook that I was all alone with these three kids and plenty of my friends offered to come help or babysit. I declined all of them and never let anyone know I had the pizza poison. I wanted to do it all on my own. First to prove I could, second to make my wife proud and third to level up, be a man and handle my home business.
The second night, the pizza poison faded and I had about 15 friends and their kids over for the Mayweather fight.
Since I couldn’t leave and go to a bar to watch the fight, I ordered it at my home and invited my friends and employees over. They brought their children, so my older two boys entertained themselves with other kids.
The following day, Sunday, I took all three kids to a big park in Dallas and then to feed the stingrays at the Children’s Aquarium at Fair Park. Yes, I loaded up all three kids in the Escalade and took them out in public. I wanted to prove to myself that I can handle anything. After two days, I was feeling brave.
I had to change a really bad diaper at the park, but other than that it went really smoothly.
Turns out, my baby, Colton is super easy to handle and in a great mood a lot. He sleeps most of the night and smiles a ton.
The only issue I had is when my 4-year-old hid from me and refused to come when I called him. I searched the house, the neighborhood, and everywhere for that little rascal. I almost called the cops! I looked for him for a good 30 mins before I finally found him buried in his closet.
My heart dropped six inches while I was turning the place upside down!
Here’s my lesson for the dads out there. If you had to show up for your kids you would, so when you need to show up for your kids, you should. Don’t be scared. Don’t say it’s a woman’s job. Just show up. After spending three days with my youngsters, we bonded more deeply and now have a new love and respect for each other. When my baby cries at night, I know what he wants now. All because I didn’t hire a sitter. I just showed up.
Don’t fear your kids, they are easier to handle than you probably think.
Don’t get me wrong though, as soon as my wife got home I said “Hi, honey, hope you had fun. I love you.” Then I handed her the baby and went to sleep for a long time.
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Photo credit: Amy Stewman
lol, sounds like the most important thing this guy learned was to use a condom in the future. 😉