Ok. I'm back. I know I have been slack and everything so let's just move past that, ok? I have a very good explanation which requires a whiteboard and at least three different colour markers and considerable gesticulation, all of which are difficult to do in a blog. There are also several multivariable equations. Let's just get over it ok.

I'm back at work and I am missing being at home. My holidays were less than relaxing but I still find I enjoy being home more than being at work. Not that work is particularly stressful and I actually have a very good job. It may not be exactly what I want but then how many people get to do exactly what they want?

DW was feeling a bit guilty for being sick over the break and leaving much of the housework and looking after the kids to me. She reads this blog (may well be the only person who does) and is also worried that I might give people (the imaginary ones that read this) the idea that she is too hard on me and a bit of a grump. Well, its time to set the record straight.

She can be grumpy and sometimes even bossy but these are not defining characteristics. These are products of the environment and I think that pretty much everyone has these or other vices in equal or greater measure. I can be grumpy occasionally and at home I get to tell the dog what to do and believe me, I try. Not a particularly bright dog.

DW has chosen to stay at home and look after the kids and domestic duties. I have never insisted or even requested that she do this. I know that some people consider this to be less of a choice and more of a collapsing under social (and often parental) pressure. They believe women who stay at home and adopt "traditional" roles set the whole Women's Movement back. If the Women's Movement is so fagile that choice is limited to defying tradition, it has a bleak future. Fortunately, I believe, that is not the case. If the tradition were specifically to be subservient then tradition be damned. But it isn't. The "traditional" role for women is based on a biological imperative for the survival of the species. The problem is that tradition took on a whole lot of unnecessary baggage that doesn't help perpetuate our species.

So what is relevent today? I think it is simple. People - not just women and not only men - have the right to choose their own destiny. We have not yet guaranteed our survival but there is not quite the pressure there once was. We no longer need everyone to try and procreate. Those that wish to should be allowed and those that don't should not feel pressured.

DW has made a choice. We discussed it but the choice was always hers to make. The path she has chosen is not simple, or easy. The requirements of her job may not seem to have the intellectual demand of a career but that is taking a very narrow view. Maintaining a house is simple enough when you have kids who like to clean up after themselves and only eat microwave meals. They would also have to be naked.

I don't live in the aforementioned house. Our first child probably should have been called Tsunami and our second child has only just stopped chiming every hour, and by chime I mean throw up. He probably should have been called Chuck. Our backyard is clay and it sticks to clothes better than lint. Both kids eat like there is no tomorrow and given their combined appetites, that will be true one day. I thought both kids were stuck on full volume until they both got much louder.

When I get home from work it is like walking into a tornado, buffetted for an hour or so until they both go to bed. Peace settles and DW and I try and have a meaningful relationship in the following hour or so before we get too tired to drag ourselves to bed. The alarm clock is going nuts at 6:30am (possibly both of them) and the next day starts. DW lives in the tornado. She has to put Tsunami and Chuck in the car to do the shopping. If she can put up with that, I can put up with her being a little grumpy and even a little bossy. I still think she is amazing.

Ciao!

I hate B2. B1 is ok though.