  you're supposed to sing that. Like everyone, John and I are still working out our identities as parents. We'll never stop, but this is one of those times where we're working harder than usual on it. For the out-of-the-loop reader, here's the cliffnotes to our story as parents: We're super young parents.
The youngest by far at Aidan's school. The youngest among most bloggers. That said, compared to my hick-town roots, we're not so young. John's turning 28 next month (he's so old! ) and I'll be turning 27 in June. This is cool for us, b/c I was still fertile, and unlike most women I know, I was lucky enough to be warned by a doctor that my fertility was waning. It's also good b/c our careers are still malleable, well, for the most part. We're young enough to be recklessly adventurous with our kids, to sleep on the ground and go weeks without showering--all of which lighten our load when we travel, which, since traveling is our biggest hobby, is economically advantageous to say the least.
Wait, this was supposed to be cliffnotes. Let me get to the point. Aside from traveling, we're obsessed with ideals. We want to change the world, and we're hell bent to do it. Sustainable, affordable housing and free, clean water for everyone!
Chief among our ideals is the precept that child raising is for dads just as much as for moms. Children and parents alike benefit from two parents, and because the workplace model doesn't support this structure yet only means we entrepreneurial Americans haven't tackled the problem yet. We want to help the world understand the social and institutional changes that can help make this a reality for families, but we've also done what we could to make it a reality now for our kids. The past year was somewhat of a derailment in this plan when, after the space shuttle accident, John took to working the overtime, crazy hours that are normal for most dads and I took to cooking and childraising solo like most moms in our society.
A year later, we're not quite as extreme with these roles, but they're still hanging around. When we went on vacation a few weeks back, this was one of the things we saw when we had enough distance to make our reflective vision clear. So now it's time to restructure family roles. But how do we make it happen? First, I want to raise my children, as opposed to 10 or 12-hour/day childcare. Second, I want my partner to help me do this so that I too can have a productive role in society.
He wants to do this, too, so as you understand this is not a mommy's momentum issue. Fortunately, John works for the federal government, which has several Clinton era policies still in place that encourage flex-time work and paternal family involvement. Although I have to say I don't know what stage two looks like yet, stage one has been set. First, we got a little push from Aidan's school, but it was good anyway, to decrease Aidan's school time from five mornings a week down to three. And I'm already glad for it, b/c the consequence of my overmommed stress shouldn't be extra school for him.
Instead, John will begin working more from home in general in an effort to eliminate office-based overtime altogether. In addition, he'll be home at least one afternoon a week, and he'll continue the general recent trend of hanging around in the morning long enough for me to get a little catch-up sleep and feed and dress the kids.
With one John afternoon and at least one, sometimes two Yolanda afternoons, coupled with nap times, I should be left with ten or more work hours a week, or ten work hours and a few pilates hours. Either way, I'm a happy mama and the kids get two parents. special postscript: my spellchecker wanted me to change childraising to clitoris . Ha! 
