"Nineteen years of this, and for some reason, I love it more than ever. I know that I must be part of an army of men who never go into a store without keeping an eye open for stuff that might be useful to their preschool-teacher wives.

'Wow! Dinosaur-shaped sponges... I'll get six packages.' 'Smelly markers at three buck a pack; I wonder if three will be enough?' Every trip to any kind of store, has the additional enticement of knowing that I might stumble onto something that we've never thought of before and that the kids would love. Guys who aren't married to preschool teachers never know the delight of holding a package of wooden clothespins in all colours of the rainbow and saying hopefully, 'Whaddayuh think? Only a buck and a half for twenty-eight of them.' Then the joy of success that comes with the magic reply, 'Great! I love 'em. Can you get six more?'

A man who isn't married to a preschool teacher can't comprehend the magic moments as she tosses out ideas of how best to use his latest shopping discovery. 'I wonder what we could do with those pins in the pouring time?' 'With play-dough?' 'Maybe if we glued two together?' It's a whole new area in which a husband can be creative and, as a bonus, keep his mind young and active."

Roy Freeman's Perils of a Preschool Husband
Chicken Soup for the Teacher's Soul: Stories to Open Hearts and Rekindle the Spirits of Educators

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