Ten days of bachelorhood

My wife, Jenny, has left me. But only for 10 days, to help run a youth camp near Minocqua.
That leaves me at home with our 2-year-old son, Braden, living a bachelor lifestyle I abandoned six years ago when I started dating Jenny.
Not that I ever really lived like a bachelor when I was single. I tried, but found myself thwarted by my inability to be sporadic, chaotic, messy and wild. I prefer a controlled lifestyle where everything is planned, everything is neat and clean, and everything is domesticated.
Back then, I didn’t realize I had these inhibitions; I just thought I was a party pooper. I avoided situations I couldn’t control. That meant no spur-of-the-moment road trips to other states, crazy parties at an unknown person’s house or late arrivals at any event just to be cool.
Now, after four years of marriage and two years of parenthood, I have a temporary semi-pass for bachelorhood. I’m not a complete bachelor, since I’m responsible for Braden during these 10 days, but I am now the sole-decision maker, the master of the house and the king of the castle.
That is until Braden started telling me otherwise. Just hours after Jenny left Sunday, he commanded me to take him to the park. “Daddy, park,” he said in an impressive-for-a-2-year-old way.
No, I told him. Not today. He cried, but I didn’t give in – at least not right away. Realizing a crying fit wouldn’t work on me, he resorted to making other demands he knew he wasn’t going to get but would annoy me. Candy, soda, Grandma, Mama, swimming, upstairs, wagon ride, outside, Canaland (his daycare here in Stevens Point). His list piled up.
After dinner, I gave in and took him to the park. By the time we came back home, I was too tired to be a bachelor, so I spent the evening finishing “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.”
Day two of my bachelorhood was a Monday, which meant work. When Braden and I got home that evening, he demanded another trip to the park. I didn’t even fight it, because I knew my resistance was futile, to quote a “Star Trek” catch phrase.
I watched a documentary about artist and musician Daniel Johnston after Braden went to bed. This will probably be the most bachelor thing I do during these 10 days, since I was able to do so in our bedroom during hours normally reserved for mutual movie viewing. I can’t remember the last time I watched something Jenny wouldn’t watch in our bedroom during these hours.
Tuesday was essentially a repeat of days one and two. And looking forward to the remaining seven days of my bachelorhood, I’m sure it will be more of the same, with minor variances. Braden and I will be going to my mom’s house for supper Friday, and we’ll be going to my in-laws’ lake home on one of the weekend days for my father-in-law’s birthday.
Jenny calls several times a day to check on us. At first I thought she was calling to check on me, to make sure I wasn’t living the bachelor life I teased her I would while she was gone. Now I realize she is calling to break up the monotony of my daily routine. She knows an unexpected phone call during the middle of a park session with Braden is the perfect way to do this.
And I am grateful for it. If she would just hurry home, then I wouldn’t have to live this boring bachelor life anymore.