Rob

I need your help. I've been subject to some ridicule from my wife and her friends (also mothers) due to the way I recently handled a situation. I may have to eat some crow based on your feedback and that's fine but I cannot even fathom that I handled this situation incorrectly. I'll also tell you up front that regardless of the feedback I would never in a million years handle the situation any different if it came up again.

My 5 year old son and I had planned a backyard "campout". We sleep in our sleeping bags, in our tent, watch movies on a portable DVD player, eat junk food and make it a special "guys' night.

We also have a just turned 2 year old daughter. The night of our "campout" my wife wanted to visit a friends house to hang out. That's fine. I would put our 2 year old to bed and my son and I would head outside. I locked all the doors (except for the back door very close to our tent ), and had a baby monitor in our daughter's room and one in the tent so i could hear if she needed anything. All's well.

About 10 pm my son fell fast asleep and I contined watching movies. About 11:30 , feeling sleepy I called the friends house to see if my wife would be coming home soon as I was not comfortable falling asleep outside with an unlocked door and unattended baby. God forbid there was a fire or someone entered the back door while I was sleeping outside. When I called I was told my wife and some of the girls had decided to go out. At this point I called her girlfriends cell phone(my wife's was broken) to see what was up. Couldn't reach them. We stayed in the tent till about 12 when i could no longer stay awake. I carried my sleeping son to his bed. I would not be comfortable, couldn't even consider sleeping outside with my daughter in the house alone. Our "campout" was done( over my son's protests as he woke up on the way inside and realized what was going on).
Now I don't mind telling you that when my wife strolled in at 3am I was livid (I couldn't sleep at this point )for a couple of reasons:

1. she knew this was a special planned night for my son and I ...he talked about it for 2 weeks
2. I have no idea what married mothers could possibly be doing til 3am . My experience has been that nothing good happens in those 12 -3 hours.

Bottom line is this. There is no way I would even consider sleeping outside with a 2 year old in the house alone. My wife and her friends tell me I overreacted in a big way....that my daughter was fine. I will never buy that story. What if there was a fire, an intruder or some other situation.It's one thing being outside while they are napping...it's another thing being asleep, outside for the night. I think it was a selfish, inconsiderate act to decide to go out and leave us hanging causing us to cancel our "campout" ( let alone be out til 3am ) . They tell me that her going out should have had no bearing on me continuing to sleep outside because my daughter was fine and I'm nuts.

You decide!