I love my kids, I just hate parenting
I love to complain. Especially about my kids.
Parenting is a never-ending hellscape of stress and headaches, and as such it offers plenty of fodder for whining. God knows I do a lot of it.
That said, even I am sick of some of the typical rants. It’s time for parents to shut up about some of this stuff.
Last week, my wife went to book club.
As occasionally happens when she (read: anyone) gets together with her friends, the night got away from her and she was out later than she’d anticipated. So I texted her for an update and learned that, due to a series of mishaps with the subway, she’d ended up far afield from where she wanted to be.
Enlightened Nice Guy that I am, I got irritated and scolded my wife for not having taken a car and for putting herself in harm’s way. After all, it was after dark, and SHE IS A WOMAN!
“Does it get better?”
That’s the question a follower asked me, in a lighthearted panic, after I posted a meme about unruly kids.
It’s just after my often-challenging eldest son’s 8th birthday, and this idea of things becoming easier is on my mind, so all (most) joking aside, I thought I’d try to answer. (But I hate being threatened by more experienced parents who warn me about the tween years or the teen years or the unemployed-and-living-in-my-basement years, so I’m going to try to answer without doing that.)
Mom and Buried returns with a look at the epic Zelda-themed birthday party she threw for Detective Munch
Full disclosure: I hate Pinterest.
I find both the interface and 80% of the stuff on there super annoying. But when my kids’ birthdays roll around, I become a temporary Pinterest mom. This was especially true this year, when Detective Munch chose The Legend of Zelda as his theme. There are no Zelda party packs, so it was a challenge. But when all was said and done, it was fun to see him get excited about so much of the stuff he loves from the Nintendo game being incorporated into the party – even if I had no idea what the hell most of it is!
I thought I’d write a summary in case anyone wants some inspiration of their own or for those following me as I prepped on social (I’m on Instagram now! And Facebook! At long last! Move over, D&B, MAMA’S HOME!)
There’s a running joke among parents that any vacation you take with your kids is not actually a vacation, it’s a trip. God knows I’ve leaned on this joke myself from time to time. Because it’s true.
If you ask most parents to name their best vacation ever, odds are they’ll cite one they went on before they had children. Or on which the kids were left behind. I would have said the same thing; both of my favorite vacations – my big fat Greek honeymoon, or our trip to Tuscany – took place pre-kids.
That changed last month, when I went on my new best vacation ever. And surprise surprise, I even brought my kids along! It was the best of both worlds.