MFP (Most Favoured Parent) status

I read an article in Parenting magazine a few weeks ago, in which a father commented on how his kids wanted little to do with him, and certainly had no interest in listening to him, when their mother was at home. And yet, he asserted, when their mother was away, daddy was all that and more.

Ironic, I thought, because in our house, the exact opposite has proven true of late. I'm currently the proud owner of Most Favoured Parent (MFP) status, although I am acutely aware that the status may be rescinded by the bestower at any time, and without the courtesy of advance notice.

The interesting question, apart from the thorny issue of whether or not this really matters in the grand scheme of things, is whether we as parents have aided and abetted the situation.

Our daughter spends virtually all day, Monday to Friday, with her mother. I usually walk in the door while the two of them are preparing dinner, greeted by an excited apron-clad two year old. And that's when I take over. She's mine till she falls asleep in her "big girl bed," and we both treasure every minute of it. When she wakes up in the morning, after chattering to herself and the other occupants of her bed(room), it's daddy she wants. Breakfast with daddy, and only once daddy goes to work is the spell broken. Weekends are daddy-days, for the most part.

It's a vicious or virtuous cycle, depending on your perspective. I wish I could spend *more* time with my daughter, and yet in doing so, I seem to have created a situation in which mummy is marginalised in my presence. Another blow for equality in this world, eh?

The cliched conclusion is one about spending every precious moment with your children and all that good stuff. All true, but the real answer is that we simply shouldn't take any of it personally as parents, and it's not a competition between us. Lord knows we have enough to do to compete with all the other perfect parents out there!

I'm only MFP while I'm the goofball who shows up on evenings and weekends. The fragility of that status was exposed when I foolishly attempted to wash a grape before serving it to my daughter the other day. MFP + H2O = Dr Evil.