This is the personal website of John Watson: father, software developer, artist, guitar player. Follow me on Mastodon or Twitter or Twitch or itch.io or GitHub.

Longing for days gone by

For those of you miserably eking out your days neck deep in the vomit and ire of your tantrum-prone toddler, let me clue you in: the “Terrible Twos” were nothing compared to the “I Will Stab You While You Are Sleeping Nines.” It only gets harder.

Parenting, I’ve discovered, is like true love or being hit repeatedly in the face, in that, you can’t really really know what it’s like until it happens to you. And just when you get it to stop hitting you in the face, it stomps on your neck and starts singing for-kids versions of bad pop music.

If I wrote a parenting book today, it would only have one word written in huge, bold letters on its single page: “Don’t.”

Yes, it was one of those days.

Comments

  1. s’mee on 2009-08-10 11:55:56 wrote: There are reasons mothers in the wild eat their young. Hang in there John; their job is to test and try you as a parent. Your job is to keep them alive until they have offspring of their own. Everyone is just doing their job… evidently very well today!

  2. Cynthia on 2009-08-10 13:59:03 wrote: I hate to tell you this but………..wait until they turn 13. You think you got it bad now?!?!

  3. Anna on 2009-08-10 14:48:18 wrote: Cynthia please kindly keep that to yourself. Here I was reading and thinking, “YES! I know how you feel!” My daughter is 9 (another is 7 and a son is 5) and I can totally relate to this feeling. I’m certain my daughter has gotten the teen’s guide to frustrating your parents a bit early. Then I read s’mee and think how nice are those words of encouragement. And then… Cynthia says it’s going to get WORSE?! NoOOoOOOoO! You have to say how much your kids APPRECIATE you at 13. How you are awesome to them. You can’t say it gets WORSE! sigh

  4. christine on 2009-08-12 10:08:26 wrote: i hear you, my boy is 11 and it’s still going… some days i just end up in tears. i remember all those answers i had “this is what kids need” “this is what they want” “this is what will work” crap.

  5. Asha {Parent Hacks} on 2009-08-17 20:27:22 wrote: I have a nine year-old. I understand. It’s been a week since you posted this – hope you’re feeling better.

  6. Scott on 2009-09-01 03:58:14 wrote: You may find this take on the ‘job of the parent’ entertaining! http://www.diyfather.com/content/job-description-parent