Your Daddy is on his way home!

That's the magic phrase in my household. I don't know why this popped in my head but it did so I'm going to write about it. It seems every family has a magic phrase. "Just wait till your Daddy gets home" "Wait till Daddy finds out" etc. Ours is "Your Daddy is on his way home!" Which of course is then followed by a chorus of "When will he be here. How many more minutes till he gets home." This is very powerful and I only use it sparingly(once a day). I have been tempted to do it several times a day. Like when I've been trying to get dd to do her math work for the past 3 hours and she's whining and complaining it's too hard (it's not she had no problem with the same work a week before). Or when the house is a total wreck and I've been trying for the past 8 hours to get it under some sort of control only to have everything undone the mysterious 8-handed, 8-footed Notme monster. Or it's cousin Idaknow.
It's like magic...the phone rings with Hubby's ringtone and everyone pauses. Then I hang up and say the magic words "Your Daddy is on his way home." and all of sudden all four of them begin this mad dash. Papers are being picked up, dishes are getting done. Is that the vacuum I hear? The living room, entryway and kitchen become clean in less then 15 minutes and the kids are heading to their bedrooms to start there when Hubby walks through the door.
This makes me wonder why can't they see I'm as serious as their daddy when I want things done. Why must I turn into some screaming harpie in order to get 3 minutes of work and all their daddy has to do is come home? I'll get my revenge though...well through my daughter anyway...one of these days she'll be a mom and will be calling me complaining that her kid(s) will not listen to her as well as their daddy. While I'll try to be sympathetic and helpful on the inside you know I'll be whooping it up and saying "See that's whatcha get" My boys probably not so much as they'll grow up to be the Daddies and while hopefully they won't understand why their children won't listen to their mom...they won't have to go through it directly. But I'm sure their future children have something else in line for them.