I'm in the middle of my second week of several days in a row of solo parenting. There will be a third trip taken by my husband this month at the end of the week, making it 3 solo parenting expeditions in as many weeks. This time of year is rough for me anyway, with the end of the grading period, massive assessments for report cards, completing report cards, preparing and then conducting conferences on two longgggg days. It hasn't been easy on a lot of levels, also because Sam's cutting 2 teeth right now, and hasn't been his usual happy self (meaning multiple night wakings, starting his day before 6 am, lots of fussing, lots of crabbiness which manifests in kicking and hitting and extra clingy-ness). Do I also need to mention that things that are tough on my own two children make my job tougher at the same time- like time changes, weather changes, etc by bringing out the crazies in my students and their parents?
I'm longing for the days when my husband is home again for more than a few days in between trips. Longing for a break to go somewhere sans two toddlers under two. Ready for a return to normal with no unexpected power outages, or crazy parents of students making my job harder than it already is. Ready for a little help at home. Excited to go to the bathroom without an audience.
This post is about more than that though. As I was thinking about typing up something here, I read a comment on another blog that stuck with me. Veteran's Day was on Friday, and there are so many families that are in similar situations to mine... except their parenting partner doesn't have the luxury of a few days home every week. Many families have a parent deployed and are solo parenting for much, much longer than I have been. When I keep that in my mind, solo parenting my twin toddlers for the second week in a row right before a 12 hour day of parent teacher conferences doesn't seem all that bad, after all.
4 comments:
I can only begin to imagine solo parenting twin toddlers while also dealing with the craziness of teaching at this time of year. That would be rough!
And perspective is always a great thing to have.
So true. My hat is off to military moms (and dads). That's no easy job!
Sorry you've had to do so much solo parenting though- that is tough. Yikes, your comments about your students' parents scare me-- I always hear that the worst part about teaching is dealing with the parents and sometimes I wonder what I'm getting myself into. :)
Hope Sam is back to his usual happy self for you soon!
Very reflective and a good way of putting life into perspective. While you acknowledge the tough job that you are doing (which is important), you also recognize to remember to be thankful for what you do have. You are such a smart lady! Focusing on the realistic positive.
I don't know how ANYONE does the job of parenting alone!
I used to say that infertility treatments were the hardest thing I've ever done, (and they were at the time, very hard), but parenting.... WHOA!
And YUP! Crazy kids, crazy parents, crazy report cards. I'm just about done with mine, and someone just emailed us to say we had to write every standard number for each strand we taught in each comment box... and I just laughed.
Sending you a virtual bag of chocolates or wine or whatever makes you happy! :)
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