When You’re a Parent the Workload Is Great, the Reward Is Greater
Just when the world seems beyond our control, our babies have a way of making everything so simple and pure.
It had been a day.
I had woken up at 6 a.m. with anxiety about our upcoming travel plans. We were leaving the next morning to visit my parents in Massachusetts and we hadn’t even started thinking about packing, a task made more daunting by the prospect of flying with a 10-month-old in tow.
Then, I had trudged into work, where I’d spent all morning waiting to receive comments on a brief and all afternoon scrambling to incorporate them so we wouldn’t miss the filing deadline. By the time I’d left the office, the train was so crowded I had to stand in the aisle grasping onto a pole, my face uncomfortably nestled in a stranger’s armpit.
Now it was 6 p.m., and I was ready to sleep. Instead, I was in the kitchen in my work pants and undershirt trying not to overcook salmon while I cut up tiny pieces of sweet potato for our daughter. I could hear her on the floor behind me, babbling to herself and banging on an empty yogurt container. I tried to muster some enthusiasm.
“Sweetie, we’re having fish for dinner. Do you like fish?”
