Do you ever have a parenting moment that feels completely surreal and ridiculous, like there’s no way this is actually happening right now?
My peak such moment was coming home after a rare spousal evening out, sans kids, to discover all three children not in their beds, drifting off to sleep — oh, no — but whizzing around the house at light speed, cackling like hyenas.
😮
The babysitter had no explanation.
“I don’t know what happened. They’re really high energy all of a sudden.”
Then the children started chanting:
“We had almond milk! We had almond milk!”
OK, that’s fine but — oh no, wait — which almond milk?
As you have already guessed, it wasn’t the kid-friendly pink strawberry almond milk, nor the blue spirulina (always a favorite in my house).
Dashing for the recycling bin, I fished out the now-completely-empty bottle, which was clearly labeled as, yes, cafe latte almond milk. (Nooooooooooo!)
We said good night to the babysitter and adjusted to our new reality: No quiet grown-up time. No calm evening at home. We were back on parenting duty, abruptly reassigned to Operation Calm These Kids Down.
This can’t be happening.
But it was happening, and it did happen. And there was nowhere else to go but… forward.
And that’s parenting in a nutshell: You may have a vision for how your day will go. But the actual experience of the day may be nothing like that!
Today, I can laugh about that night. But I learned two important lessons:
- Flexibility is essential to successful parenting
- Keep caffeinated beverages under lock and key… just to be safe
What was your most surreal parenting moment? I’d love to hear. (Email me!)
Sleep well,
Nora
