My Date for the weekend

[RSteve]

I just got off the phone with my younger daughter.
"Daddy, would you be able to take care of Sophia (18 months old) for the weekend? I'd like to take the older kids (6 & 5) to a friend's cabin for the weekend. Sophia needs so much attention; no one would get to relax and have some fun."
Not much I could say. Until my surgery, I took care of Sophia 3 to 4 days a week. I had some plans, but they can wait.

 

[kxg]

You sir are a good papa.

 

[RSteve]

You sir are a good papa.

I try really hard. This daughter was a late life surprise; eight years younger than my older daughter. My late wife and I were 40 and 42 respectively. For an inexplicable reason, my younger daughter and my wife never had the relationship that was shared by the older daughter and my wife. Since she was a fiery tempered toddler, of necessity, I became father and mother for the younger daughter. My older daughter was always calm and easy to handle. I think the difference in the girls' behavior and physical size was very difficult on my wife. My older daughter is a petite 5'1" about the size of my late wife. The younger daughter was taller than both of them when she was ten-years-old. At age 35, she's a curvaceous 6 foot tall mother of three. She graduated from the University of Wisconsin with highest honors, has taught elementary school for 12 years, earned her M. A. last year from Concordia University while teaching full time, and is currently working on school principal certification, also while teaching full time.
I try to help her as much as I am able. Sadly, her marriage is on the brink of ending.

 

[Blackhorse]

There is nothing worth more than time spent with your grandchildren. There are no plans that can’t be put on hold for their benefit.

In the words of the aged Grail Knight in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade...”You have chosen wisely.”

 

[RSteve]

At midnight last night, my daughter informed me that her husband is entering a residential drug treatment center in California for the next month. It's been pretty clear for quite some time that he has an alcohol addiction. My daughter told me earlier in the week that he's mixing alcohol with weed and black market anxiety meds.
His father is a life long functioning alcoholic and his mother has progressed through alcoholism, morbid obesity, anorexia, and is a hoarder. For the next month, my M-F will be as parent. I'll get through it, but I expect to be pretty tired.

My daughter's in-laws live in a very upper middle class St. Paul suburb, next door to a former governor of the state. The exterior and grounds are well kept. You'd never guess, in a million years, that junk is piled from floor to ceiling in the interior. My daughter has been there once and said there's a narrow path through the living/dining room to pass through the house, otherwise there's piles of junk. The father-in-law basically lives in the basement where he has his computer, a TV, and his hobby items. My daughter offered to handle cleaning the place out but her father-in-law and her husband said the mother-in-law accumulated the mess and if she wants it cleaned out, she has to do it. The mother-in-law (in her 70s) is mentally and physically unable to cope with daily life; cleaning the mess, impossible.