Wrongfully Reassuring

As a married person, hearing my neighbors have an argument gave me an odd sense of relief. It is comforting to think that even the most pleasant people I know, who also happen to be incredible parents with wonderful children, can have shouting-with-swear-words fights (just like the rest of us!). Maybe we’re not doing so terribly ourselves.

In these days of total isolation, we do not get the regular feedback of seeing people doing what people do. Everything is filtered through social media and intentional display. We can’t see the child misbehaving in public, or the adult overreaction. Parenting is the act of doing followed by second guessing. A nightmare of mine is imagining that other people have figured out all the nonsense and my wife and I are not in on the secret.