I don't want my sister in law to see this on line, so I'm going to both rant here and invite other people's experiences. In the last 4 years I've either been not invited to, or my wife has been invited but I haven't or men were not very present at Baby showers: Our babyshower: 4 guys, 30 women best man baby shower: not invited, but a bunch of our wives were Alyssa's brides maid: sister- in-law: Alyssa invited, no men invited really good friend: not invited our sprinkle for twins: I had to convince my mother in law and aunt in law to invite the men and boy cousins not just the women sister- in-law: Alyssa invited, no men invited This event feels like such a tone-setter for how the mental load and cognitive and emotional labor will be owned in the relationship. I think that if we want there to be less of a ton of bricks change in mental load ownership upon the children arriving, we need to include and do the emotional labor of having men be a part of these events. All of the items that show up for THE BABY, not the mom, that both parents will likely be using, become owned my mom because of the context they are given. Would love some thoughts on how your showers went/how it impacted the way you saw your fatherhood

Physical - pulled up old flooring and put into trash Cognitive thought about the air quality and dust flying around, realized I would need to put cats in a different area so I could keep the windows open and bring their littler box down Emotional- respond calmly when our child really struggled upon me flushing the toilet rather than them, and being kind and compassionate in that moment.

Share 3 things that had to be thought of first before they happened today 1. School lunches 2. Appointment change 3. Contacting home owner to make alterations

Just finished week 3 of 22. Every game is important, Thursday night, Sunday 10am-9pm, and Monday night. They are in a state of fight or flight over every interaction. Then mad at dinner time, that everyone was hungry and it wasn’t handled.

Yesterday I had a long convo with Alyssa, she discovered that she had been slowly feeling a “smoldering” anger towards me… for a long time. I knew there were a lot of moments when she seemed more angry than I would expect, and I often aim to assume and look for where I can take accountability, sometimes I can assume a lot some is a little harder. The other night she needed some space, she needed alone time, no hesitation, I took over the rest of the night, luckily things went smooth which is not 100% of the time. That night she said she still felt that smoldering anger but actually had no where to direct it towards me yet her anger felt aimed at me. It forced her to be introspective as she had no reason for me seamlessly taking over. She concluded after a multi day consideration, that she was FEELING 2nd hand anger, covering up her shame. She felt shame that she wasn’t doing enough because that night I successfully did it all, cooked, cleaned, bathtime, bed time routine. When I was doing the work it took away her ability/cultural-training that she should be a martyr. This gave me hope as I often think I’m doing everything I can, to be an equal partner, and still often feel so short. It was such a win to know that some times her own culturally inflicted shame was the cause. I don’t expect her to no flip a switch and notice everytime she is in a shame-based anger. But we talked about what I can do to help her be aware. She encouraged: “Is there something happening for you?” Which gives her some safe space to share emotions if they are there or if I’m grasping at a misperception.