Parenting

It's tough. Really tough regardless of circumstances. You take babies and in not enough years hope and pray that you have taught them everything they need to know to be kind and loving adults. Then you take the sweet sounding version of parenting and you come home from a 14 hour shift to nail polish spilt on the table, hungry kids who haven't had a chance to tell you how their day was because when they tried to call when you are normally off you were talking to a doc and couldn't answer. Laundry that is covering the couch waiting to be folded, dishes that need to be washed.

And tomorrow?  Tomorrow you roof. 

I see families who seem to have it all together and I just wonder how. I have a 5 minute drive from work and it's not long enough to decompress. All of today is still buzzing around me. Did I do all I could do?  I was busy today but did I do my very best? 

When asked about roofing through yesterday's winds Dad said something along the lines of well, the roof has to be done, I'm going to CA soon and we don't have the luxury of time. We will do what has to be done because it needs to be done not because it's convenient. I've enjoyed working with Dad on the roof, it's nice to think and to take Dad's simple comments and expand it. Parenting is a series of "have to" and often the most critical of the have to things come at the most inconvenient of times. Nail polish on the table after a 14 hour shift and no dinner in the crockpot and needing to shove aside today's worry and listen to how the field trip went and plans for Homecoming game. 

All difficult and inconvenient. When everyone is in bed and then I want to talk no one is here.  Single parenting is hard, every single day -- some more than others, some more lonely than others, almost always overwhelming.