I’m always appreciative whenever Jaclyn takes care of Miles for an afternoon or evening, allowing me to go out with friends, but there’s always a part of me that dreads going home afterwards. Not because I don’t want to see my family, but because there’s always a chance that I’ll come home to absolute chaos.
Maybe Miles won’t be asleep, but will instead be running around the house with enough energy to power a small town. Maybe some catastrophe will have erupted, leaving a mess that I’ll need to clean up immediately. Maybe Jaclyn will simply have had a rough night and will resent me forever for it. Endless possibilities.
And yet some of those possibilities aren’t bad at all, even when the conditions for disaster were all present. Tonight, after celebrating a friend’s birthday, I arrived home to find…that Miles and Jaclyn had baked an apple pie. No mess, no chaos, everyone in bed asleep…and a delicious pie on the counter that the two of them made together.
And you bet I had a slice before bed.
The Perils (& Pride) of Paternity 