I love my kids, I just hate parenting
Winter break has arrived. Godspeed, fellow parents!
I don’t know about you, but I’ve come to dread these weeks my kids have off from school. Summer, obviously, is the worst, mostly because it’s the longest. But none of them are particularly fun, as we’re all about to spend the next few weeks finding out!
Why isn’t school year-round again? Thank God for teachers.
This is my second baby, so I’ve been through this all before. I’ve seen things I can’t un-see. But experience isn’t fool-proof. And it’s definitely not baby-proof.
Babies be stupid. Babies be fragile. Babies be trippin’! Baby-proofing won’t save you.
There are so many things that can go wrong when you have a baby in the house, the best thing you can do is try not to think about it too much. Anyway, here’s a list of some of them. Happy holidays!
When you have kids, you sacrifice a lot. Is all that sacrifice worth it? Is parenting worth it?
I’m not sure I can answer that.
Both because there is no definitive, universal answer, and because I don’t know yet.
Parents and children have different perspectives.
This is obvious when you’re a kid, particularly a teenager, because parents just don’t understand. But it becomes even more obvious, blindingly obvious, when you become a parent. Suddenly, parental guidance isn’t just a hassle, it’s your daily responsibility!
We usually don’t want the same things that our kids do. There is some overlap: we want them to be happy, to have fun, to be healthy, and they, presumably, want those things too. But we have different definitions of those things, and different methods for achieving them.
Which means that some of the things that make us good parents also make us bad ones, in our kids’ eyes.
Isn’t bullying supposed to be over?
Lately, ending the scourge of the schoolyard bully has become a popular cause. With the social media age bringing a new style of bullying to schools – and far scarier consequences with it – parents are on high alert. As a relatively new dad in a relatively progressive area, I hardly expected to encounter it.
Especially not in first grade!