Together, you're a power parenting duo. Apart, you both sort of abide by your own rules – and that's something that's often best kept on the hush-hush. For many kids across the country, mom's business trip is a bit like Christmas – your old man may just pull a Santa and shower you with the gift of a rules-free weekend, provided you're not too naughty (and you keep his permissiveness on the DL).
Although moms are less likely to travel for business than dads are – a 2008 National Study of the Changing Workforce revealed that 17 percent of employed mothers travel, compared to 27 percent of fathers of children under 18 – this still affords a sizeable window of opportunity for dads to have it their way with their kids for a while. Here's a few things that dads are most likely to do when Mom isn't looking.
1. Frozen pizza for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Rationale? That's three wholesome nutritional categories: grains, vegetable sauce and dairy.
2. Send them to school in their Spiderman pajamas and ballerina outfits. Let's face it, most dads don't have much experience combing hair either, unless you count his days as a stable hand.
3. Turn household chores into a contact sport. Things get clean faster when you've got a good defense strategy.
4. Staging a strategic marathon of Stephen King movies (way past their bedtimes) and then planting a plastic mummy in the bathtub when it's time for the little ones to brush their teeth. You can rest assured that plenty of said frozen pizza was eaten in front of the TV as well.