On arrival back from a two-day school holiday expedition to Melbourne last week, we four Grosser girls stoked the fire, fed the chooks, collected the mail and put the bins out while waiting for Daddy to get home from work.
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When he returned, my 17-year-old daughter clutched her father by the shoulders and fell to his chest exclaiming, "Daddy, thank goodness we have your male influence in this family."
She never said a truer word.
We four women behave like monsters when he isn't around.
Without him, my girls feel liberated enough to tell me exactly what they think of everything I say, eat or do and there is no knight in shining armour to defend me.
Meanwhile, I have plenty of time to tell my three daughters precisely how they can improve their conversational skills, dietary habits and ladylike behaviours, losing it completely with their backchat and demands when there is no one around to impress with my elegant handling of the copious amount of parenting opportunities.
It gets pretty ugly.
In a friend, you'd politely ignore the odd bit of self-pity, vanity, pride or greed, but we are all very busy smoothing off each other's rough edges by pointing them out.
When Kym is in situ - even though it looks deceptively like he's simply asleep in the chair holding the remote control - we all become much nicer versions of ourselves.
Even when my husband is out in the shed or in the yard, I'm still in the house trying to amaze him with a delicious meal and gorgeous home, and though my girls might not dry the dishes or pack away their things to help me, they'll get the job done if Daddy says so.
I get annoyed because he is always missed when he is not around, while I am never missed because I am always around.
The brutal thing about we four females being together is the honesty.
In a friend, you'd politely ignore the odd bit of self-pity, vanity, pride or greed, but we are all very busy smoothing off each other's rough edges by pointing them out.
We name and shame all the way.
And last week that was all the way to Melbourne and back.
At home, life is still a balancing act, but Daddy seems so straightforward, safe and sure that we are all glad to have his steady counterweight to even us out.