When you decide to take a year off and spend all of your time together as a family, it conjures up images of never ending smiles and happy moments. Real life has a lot of that, but let’s be honest, there is a bunch of other stuff in there that we don’t talk about – especially in today’s world where the dirty bits get filtered out and social media feeds are full of happy beautiful moments. This is the first in what I hope will be a series of snippets of real life – for those who can’t help but look behind the curtain.
Part 1 – Things my kids do that annoy me.
Now I love my kids, but being with them 24 hours a day for 8 months is an unusual circumstance – the sort where little things can get on your nerves. This week, I’ve compiled a list of the top three things my kids do that really annoy me:
#1) Stop walking for no apparent reason when they are 6 inches in front of me. This is a daily occurence. I’m getting better at anticipating it – if I notice they have started drifting in front of me, I fade back or look for an opportunity to move to the side, but inevitably, they get me. Sometimes I think it’s this subconscious power-game they’re playing. When they make their move, I am forced to decide between slamming into them or throwing myself sideways into a wall / parked car / random pedestrian. Being their dad, my instinct is to protect, so my body somehow avoids them at all costs (many apologies to the random people I have bumped into). Point being, it really annoys me when they stop right in front of me.
#2) Ask questions that no reasonable person would expect me to know the answer to. Now I know what you’re thinking – my job as a parent is to teach my kids to be independent thinkers, to come up with questions that I can’t answer and to celebrate this as part of their development. I say BAH! When it switches from curiosity to a daily interrogation of why I don’t know more things, it moves from cute to annoying. Maybe this makes me a bad parent, maybe it’s just that I’m a real person. Ultimately, it’s who I am – it really annoys me when they don’t stop asking irrational questions.
#3) Act completely oblivious to the presence of other people. I’m hoping this one is development based and will go away with time, but things like using the airplane seat in front of you as a drum kit or shouting with glee inside a museum because they “saw a bird – a real live bird inside” these things drive me bonkers. Each and everyday we have a moment where we stop to discuss where we are (inside) and what voice to use (inside voice). I don’t get it, they learn so many things so quickly, why does this one take so long to sink in? It really annoys me when I have to remind them to consider the existence of other people.
Okay that’s my whiny pants post for today, I’ll try to make my next dose of reality less complaint oriented but right now, it felt good to get that off my chest – anyone else out there share my sentiments, or am I alone on this?