Single Parents Deserve An Award
You all should get a trophy
I love my kid. I would rather spend all day with him than do anything else. But he drives me crazy sometimes.
It’s not even his fault. He’s laid back, great disposition, funny. He doesn’t just fuss or throw tantrums for no reason. I hit the jackpot. But, like most parents, we’ve been through the nighttime feedings, the re-flux, now teething. And each one seems to be worse than the other. Recency bias, probably.
What’s difficult to fathom is that the majority of the time I have my wife helping out and she’s doing a lot of the heavy lifting. The times that i do have to look after him myself is only for a handful of hours. I can honestly say that I couldn’t do this job by myself.
We are definitely a team when it comes to taking care of Salvy. We both feed him, get him ready in the morning, feed him, change his diapers, feed him, get him ready for bed, play with him, read to him, feed him, comfort him, feed him. God made two parents for every 1 child for a reason. Taking care of your child is a lot of work.
Each new phase of his life brings about both positives and negatives. The good stuff is really good. He just discovered his toes. He is rolling from his front to his back and working on the other. He’s laughing at my jokes. He’s growing up so fast and I’m amazed every day by even the littlest things he does. However, each new phase delivers a blow to the ego and gives a blunt reminder that I don’t know what the hell I’m doing.
The old tricks don’t work anymore. The exorcist baby is more powerful and difficult to handle. It takes forever to figure out what is wrong. It’s frustrating and scary. Now, just as a reminder, all of these feelings stem from two 1/2 cm teeth. That’s it. There’s no medical emergency. I’m being humbled by teeth.
So I’d like to tip my cap to all single parents, parents without a strong support network, and stay-at-home parents that take care and provide for their kids every single day. You all are amazing. You are superheros.
If you need assistance, visit Parents Without Partners — a nonprofit membership organization devoted to single parents.
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