I love my kids, I just hate parenting
Last night, after we’d gotten the kids to bed, Mom and Buried and I sat down to talk.
It was the end of a long day and we had things to discuss. Adult things. We were in the middle of it when suddenly – it’s always suddenly – Detective Munch ran out of his bedroom to ask some innocuous question, for probably the 100th time that day.
And I lost my temper.
Entertaining your kids isn’t easy. Ask any parent getting barraged with “I’m bored!” two days after Christmas.
Even here in New York City, where there are a hundred activities, events, outings, and experiences at every turn, kids can be hard to please. My 9-year-old likes going to movies and the occasional play, but he doesn’t really like to participate or join things. My almost 4-year-old wants to interact and engage with everyone and anything, which makes movies and plays impossible. That gap – in age, interests, and attention spans – can be hard to navigate, and finding fun things to do that everyone can enjoy is a challenge.
That’s why I can’t recommend Pip’s Island enough.
Last year, I shared a post about my son’s ADHD diagnosis, and the relief it brought.
Finally, we had confirmation that our 9yo wasn’t intentionally ignoring us, willfully misbehaving, or somehow a bad kid. His brain is just wired differently, and with his diagnosis, we’ve been able to view things from a different perspective; hopefully, a more patient and understanding one.
Of course, understanding the big picture is one thing and managing my everyday reactions to his behavior is another.
Read more about ADHD and Me …
If you’ve been listening to my podcast or following me on Instagram, you might know that we’ve been teasing doing a “controversial” episode. In an effort to get people to rate us on Apple Podcasts (PLEASE GO RATE US ON APPLE PODCASTS!), I swore that when we hit 100 ratings, we’d let listeners choose a controversial parenting topic for us to cover.
Well, we hit 100. And I let the listeners choose. And the listeners chose vaccinations.
This post originally appeared on my Facebook page back in August. If you’ve already read it, skip to the end for new evelopments.
I had a job interview today. And I had to bring my toddler along.
Just kidding.
Mostly.