Mike Weber had just worked a 12-hour overnight shift as an operating room charge nurse when he came home to find his wife, Monica, struggling to get their four kids out the door.
"It was snowy out and I was trying to convince the kids to cooperate and get dressed so we could run down the road for some groceries," Monica Weber told TODAY Parents. "My husband saw I was not being successful and was a tad stressed, so he insisted the kids stay with him while I grabbed some groceries and a bit of alone time."
Although he wanted to help his wife out, Mike was exhausted, so he came up with a genius plan.
"When I got back I called my son to help with the groceries and he begged me to be really quiet as I came in because they were doing 'realism art,'" said Weber. "When I walked in, they were all sitting quietly drawing my husband asleep on the couch. When I asked what they were doing they said, 'Dad promised a chocolate bar to the person who has the most complete drawing and said if we were loud and woke him up before everyone was done then he would move and we would have to start all over so please be quiet so he doesn't wake up.'"
Weber snapped a photo of her kids, who range in age from 12 to 5, and shared it on Facebook, commending her husband for his ingenuity.
"I'm pretty sure he's the most brilliant man I've ever known," Weber wrote in the now viral post. "The winner gets a chocolate, but let's be honest; he is the one winning."
Weber says her husband is always coming up with parenting hacks like the impromptu art lesson. And, the Colorado mom knows parenting can be lonely and overwhelming, so she's thrilled that her post went viral and made so many other parents laugh.
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"You have times in your parenting journey where the house is a mess, the kids are fighting and everyone is acting crazy — and then there are times like this where it seems all the stars align so I figured it was something worth celebrating," said Weber. "My husband is notorious for reminding me to celebrate the little things that bring us joy so all the tough days don't swallow you up, and this was just another example of one of his off-the-wall ideas making lasting memories for our kids."
This story was originally published in January 2020.
