When I was single the weekends seemed quite long. I would sleep half of the Saturday, watch some TV shows, clean a bit and sometimes visit some friends. And Sunday evening I would play bass in my metal band. Nice and easy.
But now that I have a family and small children there is never time to do anything. The kids always need something, food, diper, entertainment, make them sleep, clean up. Wash the dishes, wash the clothes etc. Once we’re done with them it’s 9pm, we try to watch a movie and my partner falls asleep of exhaustion within 20 minutes. I try do watch it to the end so I can tell her the summary in the morning.
It’s totally regarding to have kids but I wish the weekend was one day longer.
As a parent, you have to think of yourself as a tube of toothpaste.
You get emptied, and you think, “That’s it.” But there’s more to do and no replacement for you so you slide the tube along the side of the sink to squeeze the last drops from the bottom.
Then tomorrow, when it’s REALLY empty, you have even more to do and you roll up the tube and crush the cap area to get another bit out of yourself, and you squeeze that out.
THAT’S parenting.
I don’t have kids and I look at parents and I honestly don’t know how they do it.
It’s hard enough taking care of myself.
How parents take care of kids on top of everything else is a mystery to me. I assume you all get magic powers like Hermione did in the second or third book to go back in time.
You’d be surprised what you can accomplish when you have no choice, like surviving the wilderness when stranded, or choosing your least favourite sock when there’s no more TP.
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Strangely, it is. I love my life, even though it’s damned hard sometimes. No, I’m not jumping out of airplanes into enemy fire, but I’m sacrificing a lot to try to give another few people a great start in life. I love them, and I don’t resent what I do. I’ve intentionally decided to parent 8 times, either through us choosing to get pregnant or adoption, and I wouldn’t change a thing. There’s a beautiful loving support structure around each of us called “family,” and we know there’s people out there who love us.
But yeah, I’m not going to pretend it isn’t difficult. There’s nothing else like it, it’s the most LIFE you can get out of life.
Doing anything meaningful is difficult/challenging. It’s part of what makes it meaningful.
This is amazing and accurate to how we feel.