Its too easy to take them for granted... It was a long day. I was stressed and I was tired. Unfinished projects from work buzzing through my head. The house was a mess... and no one was listening to me. I was almost to my threshhold... My kids mom is on a trip for couple weeks, so Im taking over full time daddy duties, and this is hard, exhausting, relentless work. It was hard enough with two parents sharing the load, but being outnumbered 4 to 1, I feel hopelessly outnumbered trying to corral them all together. I have always known that as a dad after divorce, we get the easy end of the deal. One night a week and every other weekend, just means we have time to play with them, focus on creating some great memories, and then hand them back to mom who has to deal with real life. Having them for two weeks of normal life, school, homework, chores... just deepens my appreciation even more for how amazing their mom is. Im not certain how exactly she does it, and how she does it so gracefully and so well. Its quite possible I would go crazy. So tonight, after a long day of work, errands, and running around, I was frazzled and so ready to lock the kids in their rooms for the night, so I could escape and zone out to the peaceful and sometimes amusing world of Facebook ;-) With an armful of random stuff I had accumulated as I walked through the house in a fruitless attempt to clean up, I was about to bark one more command to my kids to go to bed... when I paused. and listened. down the hall I heard my sweet 8 year old Serena, practicing a song from frozen on the piano. down the other hall and around the corner in my office, I listened to my oldest son and daughter as they were talking about video games and laughing as he sat by her on a stool as she painted with some new paints she got for her birthday. I glanced into my room, and my little five year old had taken his shirt off and was sprawled out on my bed, fast asleep... ... and I wanted that moment to last forever. My home is normally so quiet and lonely. Why dont I appreciate it more when it is filled with the love and laughter (and yelling and messiness too) that I have when my kids are there? Why do I take these simple moments for granted and let my stress take over? I know Ill still probably get frustrated tomorrow when Serena leaves the milk out one more time, when Jeremiah tunes out my voice as he gets stuck in a video game, when Eliah screams at her sister, or when Peter refuses to moves his legs when we are trying to get out the door... Ill probably forget again how lucky I am to have these simple, precious moments. but for now, I remember. and for now, my life is full and happy... and I remember why I love to be a dad.
Posted on: Wed, 21 May 2014 04:38:40 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015