Who Is The Most Popular Parent In Your Home?

As parents, Joe and I have found a balance in raising our daughter, now 14 – in what we feel works for us or has so far.

But it feels that it has come down to this over time – Joe’s the good cop and I’m the bad cop!

Joe is so laid back and just never loses his cool!  He’s so beyond patient, seldom raises an eyebrow and rarely says “No” unless it has come from me first.  He’s SO diplomatic and he’s just a true pleasure to be around – all of the time.

Dad is fun!!

I, on the other hand, am the one who seems to be the stern hand when one of us has to be – speaking in my ‘teacher voice’ when I need to – issuing chores, reminding her of her responsibilities, getting her to stay on top of school assignments, handing down the house rules, allocating the ‘consequences’ when she’s gone astray. 

Mom is NOT fun!!

It’s not to say that Joe doesn’t do any of those things, ever, but I sometimes feel that the ‘role’ of the heavier hand has fallen on me, however naturally over the course of her years.

And that just makes mom ‘unpopular’!

Whatever it takes to keep her on the straight and narrow tho, as her parents, we do it and Joe and I both support one another in it all, 200 %. We’re a team in all facets of life, and parenting our daughter as necessary, is a part of that.

But on some days, I would like to be the good cop for a change! 

I want to be the one who makes lame jokes and has the presence of mind to make smiley faces on her breakfast plate with her eggs and sausage. 

I want to be the parent who is loved just for his laid-back way of being with no real threat of “Oh no, what if Dad finds out!”  

I want to be the one who receives those hugs of relief as in “Thank God you’re home…he’s really on my case today!”

I would like to be the one who skateboards with her as ‘the cool parent’ – if I knew how to skateboard!

Or the one who has it together enough to run with her at 5 a.m. with Gunner.

Sometimes, I would like to be the more popular parent!

Joe and I have discussed this and have decided that for one week, we’re going to change it up!  He will be the bad cop, and I will be the good cop!  This could get interesting!

But when she was getting herself ready to sleep tonight, and tucked the heated rice bag under her belly that I had brought up for her from the microwave, with Tylenol and water in hand as I brushed her hair away from her cheek and kissed her goodnight, she said “Thanks Mom, for all that you do for me.  I love you SOOO much!  And thanks for helping me with my math.”

Game change…I’m good with being the bad cop! 

No matter what, she knows that we both love her equally, and there is no comparing in that. And we know that for a myriad of reasons that for each of us, as her mom and dad, she loves and appreciates us both, deeply.

Yet, I still can’t help but wonder – is it only in our family where dad is the fun or cool one?

Who is the most popular parent in your home?