“You’re the worst!”

A Short Adventure in Parenting.

Photo by Timothy Eberly on Unsplash

I’m probably not the best parent at all times. I get caught up in the day-to-day and forget that my kids are just that, kids. I focus a lot on work to try to give them a childhood that was better than my own. I think that’s most parents’ goal. But, according to my six-year-old, I am the worst.

While he doesn’t have a solid grasp on the things my wife and I try to teach him and his younger sister about how to function as full-sized humans, we try our best. We try to instill patience, empathy, and understanding, but I’m the worst.

When things don’t go according to plan, like they normally do when tiny humans are involved, and we don’t get to everything he had planned, I am definitely the worst. I think I could be better if I had at least 36 hours in a day.

Last week, I got home from work, and he had apparently been working on a shopping list, a very toy-heavy shopping list. He was very excited to show me all the cool stuff he had found. Godzilla figures, Marvel legos, some other little guy with horns all filled his shopping cart. I was by far the worst I had ever been when I didn’t let him check out. The breakdown was one for the ages, tears, coughs from crying so hard, and oh man the screaming. It’s taken me years to understand that the best thing I can do is walk away and not get…