Countdown to Chain of Command

3 more days till Chain of Command is here in Columbus. I had decided not to take it, due to the complications related to Baby Z. But after a curt and brief conversation with hubby, as we were about to get out of the van, everything changed.

"You're not taking the class?" I asked him.

He shook his head.

"Why not?"

"Too much for two people," he replied.

"Well, I'm not taking it," I stated, partly indignant that he still thought I was taking it despite my repeated declarations of not taking it because of Baby Z.

"Why not? Oh...just take it," he shot back at me.

"But Z..." I began.

"Alah...we'll make do somehow."

I hate it when he does that, but he always does, and in the end, I always succumb. As I stepped out of the van, I thought to myself,

Hmm..so I'm taking the class, eh?

But it seemed too easy and uncomplicated, and I know that there always will be complications, because I had encountered it before during Rays of Faith and Code of Scholars. A man is a man. Everything is simplified for him.

I posed him some challenge questions, in order to insert come probable complications that would take place.

"Then you can't man the registration tables."

"Ok, I'll tell them I can't," he acquisced.

"How are you going to heat up Baby Z's food?"

There are no microwaves in the campus buildings, at least not where the class will be held. No fridge either for that matter, and since Baby Z now eats rice porridge that I make for him, a fridge and a microwave are important essentials needed in the equation of him babysitting Baby Z while I take the class for two full weekends.

"Dry it, and then just add water," he said.

I did a double take in my mind while at the same time thinking,

Is he serious?

"You can't dry it, what do you mean?"

"You'll have to stay home some of the time so Baby Z can sleep properly, instead of in his stroller," I said.

See how I have to come up with the solutions?

We'll have to go there in the afternoon, because he will need your milk, and you can't go without nursing him for long," he said.

Well, I have to give him some credit, he did think about my being engorged, while I mainly thought of Baby Z's comfort and flaring eczema. 10 points for hubby!

So, it was decided then that I am taking the class, and that hubby will babysit the kids. I'm sure flexibility will be needed during those two weekends, and that no amount of planning will suffice or be realistic since Baby Z is the one who decides when he wants to nurse, so for now, we leave all the tiny, minute details out.

Time and time again, this point is raised:

The mother is the one most in need of these types of classes because she will be the one who is to raise and educate the children.

So may Allah aid me in seeking knowledge in order to benefit my family and myself in the long run. Ameen.