I love my kids, I just hate parenting
About two years ago, barely more than a month into the whole “Wow, I own a baby!” thing, I wrote a post comparing babies to lunatics. I’ve resurrected it below. Little did I know that toddlers were about 8000 times more insane. Sure, they’re more fun than babies but they are a lot more unpredictable.Read more about Zombie Post: And I Thought Babies Were Crazy![…]
With 1.5 million views a month, I could easily assume that you’ve already heard of STFU, Parents. Besides, you’re reading this so-called parenting blog…though it’s not exactly the same thing.
If you haven’t heard of it, no worries; you’re about to. Partially because the author just shed her anonymity and is making a media tour of sorts, and partially because I am telling you about it right now. The about page describes STFU, Parents as a “submission-based “public service” blog that mocks parent overshare on social networking sites.”
Consider this a public service announcement.
There’s been a lot of chatter lately about the texting habits of parents. The tenor of the conversations is mostly negative, and a lot of words have been spent excoriating parents for using their phones when they should be watching their kids.
I think we’re all guilty of it, to some extent. And sure, sometimes texting while parenting is dangerous and irresponsible, and sometimes it’s neglectful, and sometimes it’s rude.
But sometimes it’s also necessary. And it’s not always wrong.
Everyone has been talking about stay-at-home dads.
Over the past decade or so, the amount of dads staying home to take care of the kids while their wives go off to work has gone up 78%, according to Census Bureau data reported in a recent article by the Wall Street Journal.
Some people are touting this as a kind of sea change, but I don’t care if it’s “the new normal” or a changing paradigm or some X-Men-style evolution. I’ve spent the better part of a year as a stay-at-home dad (SAHD), and I don’t like it.
Weeks ago, I wrote a facetious post about why I hate my son. Despite the title, it shouldn’t have taken long for most readers to realize the post wasn’t about hating my son at all, but was actually about how he’s changed my life and why that’s okay.
But since there are so many literal-minded people out there who got upset at the suggestion, facetious or not, that I hate my son, and also dislike the fact that I put such language out there for him to one day discover, I thought – even at the risk of over-boarding on cheese – I should lay it out as sincerely as possible.
I mean, it is his birthday after all!