Last year my sons and I gave my wife the one thing every mom really wants every now and then: the absence of us.

We woke up that morning, kissed her on the cheek, and got out of dodge. Ten hours later we returned to find her eating carrot cake in a bathrobe and listening to podcasts .

Like so many dads when they do any solo-parenting, I posted a picture to Facebook. It got a big response, with more moms than I expected saying that’s just what they wanted, too. I’m not an expert in presents or parenting, but consider this my recommendation to dads to make “taking the kids and leaving” this year’s gift for moms—and a much bigger part of your regular life.

Don’t get me wrong, we love my wife Kate. She’s everyone’s favorite family member. She’s brilliant and funny and full of adventure. She’s both the strongest person I know and the most caring. She’s amazing at freeze dancing. She can name one million Pokemon. She knows instantly which injuries need Band-aids and which need kisses… and which, like me stabbing my hand trying to open a coconut with a kitchen knife, need the ER.

That’s precisely why on her birthday we needed to get out of there. For a few hours Kate didn’t have to do our emotional labor or be the default parent. No one asked her to make his brother return a toy or to check the tone in an email. She didn’t have to perform appreciation for a breakfast in bed we would have made wrong. For one day, she didn’t have to take care of anyone . It’s embarrassing this is rare, but I admit in my family it is.

This brings up some big questions.

Why couldn’t we have just stayed and taken care of her for a change? Did we really have to leave?

The answer is yes, at least for now. Our family’s modes should include times when we’re all around and Kate’s not working, but they just don’t.

When the kids need a Lego separated, it’s her name they yell first down the stairs. If they’re bored and looking to gin up some interaction, it’s her lap they cannonball onto from the back of the couch. And that all goes for me, too, only without the Legos and cannonballs (mostly). That means whenever we’re with Kate she has to be at some level of “on.”

She shouldn’t have to feel like the decision-maker, problem-solver , and nurturer in chief whenever she’s in the same house as her husband and children, but she does. That means, for now, the quickest way to free her from that burden is just for us to get out that door.

That brings us to the biggest questions.

Does one day make a difference when there’s such an everyday imbalance in the parenting load ?

If Kate shoulders so much of the practical and emotional labor in our house that a day on her own can be a *literal* gift, what does that say about us?

It says a lot of things, but here’s the main one: we need to change. If you’d asked us on our wedding day if our plan for raising a family was to divide the load unequally, we’d have both said “no way.” But here we are.

So what do we do about it?

Well, the better question is what do I do about it. The problem is—I need to transform my share of the work around here. It can’t be on Kate to solve that, too. That means I need to step up, to start doing much more not only of the caretaking and meal-planning and cooking, but the playdate-scheduling, doctor appointment-making, and child-life-organizing.

Leaving the house for one day doesn’t turn me into a co-primary parent, but maybe it can be a jump-start. Sometimes the best way to begin changing habits is to create situations where those habits are impossible.

I might not have the strength to change our caretaking patterns when all four of us are together, but if it’s just me and the boys with mom inaccessible, no one has another choice. The more days where I’m the primary parent, the more all four of us get accustomed to me in the role we’re used to just having Mom in.

Kate might be superior to me in every aspect of parenting —which makes sense, given she’s been practicing more than I have for eight years—but it’s important to remember that a shared load is better for everyone. Of course it’s better for her, but it’s so much better for the boys, too. And it’s better for me.

Our children are wonderful, hilarious and exquisite tiny humans. The focus on my 5-year-old’s round face as he tries to make a card tower. The sound of my 7-year-old’s boot cracking a puddle of ice as he walks to school. Pokemon. I miss all that when I’m not leaned forward as a parent.

And it’s now or never. I’ve been a father for eight years. In 10 more, if we’re lucky, our oldest will be in college. Childhoods go by fast. If don’t become a better dad now, when will I?

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