The best parenting advice I ever received
Sep 11, 2014, 9:25 PM | Updated: 9:25 pm
I was a newly-single mom at a trampoline park with my two monkeys. My head was on a swivel trying to keep both of them in my sight. I would run over to one, flip them around or play crack the egg and even before the little blonde egg could crack, the other one was yelling for me to, “Come watch, I can jump higher than a dinosaur,” (which doesn’t seem like it would be that much of a win since dinosaurs weigh 3 tons, but I digress).
So after about 15 minutes of the most cardio I have had in a great while, I had to take a knee. It was then that I got the greatest advice about being a single parent from a very, very wise woman.
She was a mom of one of my daughters’ classmates (I really wish that I could recall her name) but my brain is filled with too many things about soccer practice times, grocery store lists and Ariana Grande lyrics to remember.
“As hard as you think being a single parent will be, expect it to be 100 times harder.”
And I don’t believe this just about single moms, it is all single parents. The gravity of going from man-to-man defense to zone against two of the most aggressive, competitive and energy-filled players constantly going for the jugular is a staggeringly intimidating and daunting task.
When both of them want fruit roll-ups, a backrub, braids put in, a Barbie head reattached, the theory of relativity explained, “Minecraft” downloaded, velociraptor spelled, channel changed, more syrup, more Nutella, (and of course more cowbell) ALL AT THE SAME TIME???
I can’t tell you how many times I wished that I could clone myself. I was constantly asking myself “Why is this so hard?” And I came up with the answer that it’s hard because we’re doing it right.
It would be easy to let it go and let anarchy take over. It is hard to turn the level of parenting up to a level you never knew possible.
Be sure you don’t forget to call someone after they go to bed and laugh at all the ridiculousness then wake up before the sun to do it all over again with a smile.
Because they are worth it.
