Parent Hustle

Ever have one of those days where it looks like you have to choose between parenting and everything else? You're trying to get out the door but someone can't find a shoe or a mitten or a favorite toy or their cell phone or, lets stop. With all the stuff children come with in the West we could gone for pages.

Some days you squint at your children and wonder why you ever thought this parenting thing would be fun. You wonder who that idiot was that thought they could do it better than all the other parents they saw struggling with uncooperative children on the streets and in stores. Those are the days when everything has to happen at once. You ask yourself how you will handle it all without inflicting lasting physical and/or psychological damage on the small to medium sized humans that some how ended up in your care. Aside from the occasional accident, large bag, short child with no sense of personal space, jumpy parent, you realize it's simple to avoid physical harm. Deep despair grips you when you realize that you may cause undue psychological harm without even realizing it. You wonder who's bright idea it was to leave you in charge of children then remember it was your own.

While you're trying to figure that out you also have to stay ahead of a boss, coworkers, and/or a spouse. If you're a "stay at home" parent all three of those are the same person. If you are a single parent you are all of those are you. At some point you are questioning your sanity and starting to get some insight into why the elderly often seem strange. They've raised children.

Then your darling offspring does or says something cute, charming, profound, outrageous, or any combination thereof that gives you hope. The haze of confusion and self doubt clears and for the moment you think you've got this. At least until the next bit of crazy comes along and you have to do your parent hustle again.

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