Parenting is hard. People are constantly telling us “6 kids? I don’t know how you guys do it.” Truth is, it doesn’t matter whether you have 1 kid or 10 kids…it’s a lot of work. A LOT OF WORK. I thought I’d take a couple of posts to share a few practical things we’ve done that have made our lives easier. Perhaps you’ll find them useful. Here are today’s 2 tips:

1. When you are a parent, sleeping becomes “sleeping”. I can probably count on one hand the number times I’ve slept straight through the night in the past 5 years.

Someone gets cold.

Someone gets scared.

Someone needs to tinkle.

Someone needs to poop.

Someone is wet.

Someone is sick.

Someone is thirsty.

Someone falls out of bed.

Someone can’t sleep.

Someone can’t wait until morning to inform me that her finger gets wet when she repeatedly sticks it in her ear.

Sometimes I’ll open my eyes and realize that one of our 3 or 4-year-olds is standing less than a foot from my face…silently staring at me. AHHHH! Creeps me out. Parents, you understand.

Well, my wife and I made an agreement that we would take turns sleeping late on Saturday and Sunday: I sleep in on Saturday this week (her on Sunday); she sleeps in on Saturday next week (me on Sunday). Whoever’s turn it is to sleep in on Saturday gets to sleep as long as he or she desires. Whoever gets to sleep in on Sunday does minimal or no work getting the kids ready for church. This arrangement is glorious. I get some of my best sleep Saturday mornings between 7am and 10am. We both look forward to our Saturday sleep-in days.

2. Girls’ trip. Every year my wife goes on a trip with friends for a few days. Men: if ever you find yourself wondering “why isn’t our house cleaner?” or “why doesn’t the laundry get done?” or “why are the dishes not clean?” or “why are the stuffed animals wearing every single pair of my underwear?” A few days without the wife will make you appreciate that your wife has single-handedly prevented your house from collapsing in upon you in a blaze of fury. Seriously. It only takes a day or two of flying solo in our little household to confirm that my wife’s work ethic is way better than mine.

Oh, one more note on this: we dads have a tendency to take the opportunity to do all kinds of cool stuff with the kids when the wives are away…ice cream, bowling, amusement parks, eating at a restaurant, eating at the grandparents, etc. This stuff is all great…but does your wife have the liberty in your budget to do these things during normal day-to-day life? If you really want to get a feel for/appreciate what your wife does during a day, consider living within your normal budget/lifestyle when she leaves town.

Obviously, the trip is a nice little break for her. However, the trip actually serves a more important purpose: an annual reminder that I need to appreciate my wife more. cue NBC’s “The More You Know” sound track….More to come…