I love my kids, I just hate parenting
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.
Last weekend, my wife and I got a babysitter and went out to celebrate a friend’s birthday.
This picture was taken on the subway on the way to dinner. That’s my decidedly less glittery hand holding up Mom and Buried’s phone so she can properly apply her eyeliner (I assume it’s eye liner? Don’t @ me!).
For the record: she swears she didn’t realize the scarf matched her iPhone case, and I believe her, because she impulsively grabbed the scarf as we rushed out the door. She had to do her makeup on the G train; we weren’t working with a lot of time! But we’re parents.
We’re never working with a lot of time.
Today, instead of putting my son on the bus and going straight to work, I took him to school so I could visit his class for “First Fridays.” First Fridays are a monthly occurrence on which parents are allowed – and encouraged – drop in on school and find out what our kids are working on.
Afterwards, on the train – in the middle of wondering WTF common core is all about – I suddenly realized I’d completely forgotten to do something I was supposed to have done first thing that morning.
Maybe it’s because I’m 42. Maybe it’s because I’m tired. But I think it might be because I’m spread too thin.
*My wife, aka Mom and Buried, originally wrote this piece for Today.com*
Some moments are seared onto your mind. For me, one of those was an otherwise normal day as a new mom to a beautiful four-month old little boy: the day that I got a call from my neurologist diagnosing me with multiple sclerosis.
When the call came, though I was already exhausted and stretched too thin as a new mom, I felt a wave of relief. Finally, I had an answer, after two years of knowing something about my body just didn’t feel right. When I hung up the phone, my husband and I hugged and said we’d figure it out. I had to stay the healthiest I could for this little boy who had entered my world just months earlier and broke my heart wide open.
No matter what kind of parent you are, you struggle. Whether you’re a stay-at-home mom or dad, a go-to-the-office parent, even a work from homer, raising kids is difficult and exhausting.
But each kind of parent has their own challenges, and on the latest episode of the Dad and Buried podcast, Pete and I chatted about all the different ones we face. With help from your comments (follow my Instagram stories to answer my topic-related questions and have your name called out!), we got into it. I’ve been a stay-at-home dad, it was not for me. But working parents don’t have it easy either.