Two months ago, MacTroll (above playing at the Orpheum with X-man) came off of a 5-month long road show where he traveled to 3-4 cities each week for 3 weeks out of the month. On the 4th week sometimes he was home and sometimes he had to travel to other places to do actual work and not marketing work.It was a really, really long road show for him and for us. And when he came back, there was nothing that MacTroll could do right because I was at my limit between school and X-man's jump into the bipolar 3-year-old mania stage and regular life stuff. A few weeks ago, he got the word that he was going to get to hire a few more people to his team. Anyone who knows Mactroll knows how much he travels, so the first question is always, "How bad is it really?"
When MacTroll was hired it was supposed to be a 10-day travel average. He realized that doing any more was pushing our family to the brink of badness. And for the last two months, he's kept it to 10 days a month. He travels for a week and is home for a week. And can I say I've noticed a huge difference. We communicate rather than just running around sending e-mails or IMs at each other to check in. We talk. We go to lunch. We have friends over for dinner. He helped me mulch the gardens. He offered to dethatch the yard. He's watering plants and grilling dinners and doing his own laundry.
And he never, ever complains about me having friends and a life and needing time out of the house. He fixes dinner for himself and X-man since I'm on my medically supervised diet. And he's understanding that when I go to maintenance -- there are certain foods that will be banned from the house. He's a good guy, my spouse. We love him very much. And I notice that since he's around more for longer stretches of time, X-man doesn't ask where he is any more. He knows that Dad is at work (he thinks he actually flies the planes) and that he'll be home as soon as he can to make him pancakes and go for walks and play catch.
So a big thank you to MacTroll for everything he's doing. It's nice to know that it's the travel that makes us all grumpy and not actually each other.
1 comment:
Aww, how sweet, and well-deserved. Of course you deserve a shout-out too for constantly being there, in the trenches, when MacTroll had to attend to business elsewhere.
We're struggling with two mamas boys that I imagine have developed as a product of daddy workin' his tush off to provide the aforementioned boys with amazing opportunities. I know someday they will realize that, I just feel bad that right now, they prefer me, the one that provides the majority of the physical care, over their father, the one who makes their lifestyle possible.
Someday there will be balance, right?
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