Sometimes, you just need a fresh pair of lens to evaluate your situation and calibrate your inner self. I have to give credit to @handsome_latino for the “superhuman” analogy. He mentioned about how not being a parent will make him miss out on the chance to do extraordinary stuff.
I have taken his words to heart. Putting on this lens puts a wry smile on my face, even if I sigh deeply about missing out on my social life and hustling my boy to pee faster so that we can shower and sleep haha.
Anyway, it’s TGIF. I’m on my way to my workplace and am ready to unwind and have a laugh by reading your superhuman parenting tales! Here are some I have compiled mentally in my head so far:
  • Was able to unzip and zip to pee even though my baby girl was strapped to my chest
  • Keeping my cool during dinner when my baby girl was screaming and demanding to feed herself, and my boy was playing with his truck on the dining table and refusing to feed himself
  • Feeding my baby girl milk while fending off my boy who wanted his diaper to be changed NOW! because he had pooped
  • Not losing my cool when my boy keeps asking Why?! to whatever answers I offer him. HAVE YOU BEEN LISTENING, YOUNG PUNK?
Let’s see if your stories can jog my memory to come up with more!
Recently: having my 3yo put all the toys in their right place. Replying "yes" for each one of the 300 times he said "Dad?" in a row.
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This put a smile on my face! I was similarly thrilled when my boy took the initiative to keep his toys after play. That’s a good memory to keep
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I think our humor can be a superpower.
Nothing deescalate a situation faster than being relaxed and offering a smile.
When we relax, other people around us relax.
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Being relaxed and drinking good sake haha
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That's pretty cool, where can I learn more about sake?
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I had a very human evening today, getting mad at my 4 yo for being a total pill about taking her bath.
Enunciation has been a bit of a struggle for our daughter, but I seem to have somewhat superhuman ear, because I'm often telling people what she's trying to say.
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Deciphering toddler talk is one of the few areas I outshine my wife in terms of parenting so it's a skill that holds a special place in my heart.
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What topics does your toddler talk about? xP
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I don't have a toddler any longer. My daughter is 5 now and she talks constantly and is very easy to understand. In other words she makes her thoughts known.
We have been lucky. She was an early talker and she is already reading a bit. She is very creative. She has created this imaginary world called chick (as in baby chickens) city and the chicks names are their colours (red chick, blue chick, gold chick etc) and she tells me stories about what these chicks are doing- things like having birthday parties or going to work. It's very interesting to see her imagination at work and how she uses information she has taken in from the real world and integrates it into her imaginary world. For instance, on the way home from her first Tball game she just randomly said "you know, the chicks love to play baseball every day." and I replied "really, who is the best player?" and she said "gold chick, he always hits a homerun".
My son was not like this. He was always super smart and analytical. He used to get frustrated if his toys weren't lined up perfectly or ordered by size etc. So it has been really cool to see both of them growing and interacting with the world differently.
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Our daughters sound very similar. Her speech has come a long way over the past year and now we can follow along with the stories she's been making up.
She also has some similarity to your son, in being very particular about things being arranged properly. When they do art projects at school, she seems to make patterns more than the other kids.
Tball!!! How's that going?
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Interesting. My son just draws all over the place haha
Do you think your daughter is conscious that she’s making patterns? Or is it her subconscious that you think guides her movement - as in she can’t quite explain why she draws patterns?
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It's at least somewhat conscious. If she messes it up, she'll go back and fix it. I don't know if she sets out to make something in particular, though.
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Sounds like she is a conscientious young lady!
Well, it is winter now so we are a few months away from Tball starting up again but she has a foam bat and ball and we practice her swing a couple times a week indoors. Of course then she wants me to bat so she can pitch and invariably she just hits me with the ball and laughs. Sometimes the dog runs through and steals the ball. It's a lot of fun. I am a fortunate man. There was a time I was working 70 hours a week pretty consistently and didn't get to spend a lot of time watching the kids grow. So I am relishing it now.
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That sounds great.
We haven't decided what sports or activities to do this summer. She likes dance class and a lot of those kids do gymnastics, so we're thinking about giving that a try. I think she might still be a bit too independent for team sports.
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My daughter loves her dance class. She has her first showcase in a couple weeks. She tried gymnastics and liked it but she wasn't very confident with hanging off things and walking across beams etc, so we didn't continue. Thought we would try dance for awhile and maybe gymnastics again when she got a bit bigger. When she turns six I am going to put her in taekwondo. They have a class for 4 and 5 year olds but it is two hours before my sons class whereas the 6 plus class white belt to green belt class if right before my sons class so it will be a lot easier logistically.
It was really cool to read this too! I hope you share more of your parenting journey.
Children do have lovely imagination unmatched by adults, huh
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My wife is the one who understands our children better, especially since they speak her mother tongue. It must be nice to have this special bond with your princess!
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It is. I don't think she's that hard to understand, though, which leads me to get annoyed with other people on her behalf for not really trying.
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At some point, we all become our children’s advocate
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You should create a parenting territory
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Haha ikr! But I don’t think I have the funds to take this risk
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Maybe you'll be able to do it once sub-territory functionality gets implemented... it could be part of ~education for instance. Or even ~science if you were to consider it as the science of parenting...
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I had my first experience sitting my son down for a "serious" talk regarding some of his naughty behavior at kindergarten. He angrily ran out of the room trying to lock us in. He's 4. During his tantrum, it was interesting to see how much of his behavior is modeled by the way I or my wife deal with our emotions during difficult times. They really do absorb everything. Mundane, but felt superhuman all the same when he finally understood his behavior was inappropriate.
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It’s awesome how you stepped outside the situation and observed detachedly what was going on in your son’s mind
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Encouraging my daughter to finally let go of me in the pool and float in the water on her own. Took 2 months, but she summoned the courage. Within a week she was diving in on the deep end and doggie paddling to the other side all by herself.
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She is conquering the pool like a BOSS!
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I take my little one to bed almost every night, and if it's not too late, we read something. Right now we're reading about philosophy. I wrote about it recently #397639
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Thanks for sharing! I saw your “The School of Life” post the other day but didn’t respond.i love “The School of Life” - I actually follow it on IG.
I liked this book from them:
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218 sats \ 1 reply \ @Bitman 26 Jan
Plus, for me, one can't help but feel Superhuman when you fully and totally love someone...
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Plain and simple. I like
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Reading all this, it's heartening to see that the whole "trad-wife" bullshit from Bitcoin Twitter does not represent the majority of Bitcoin dads~~
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Stackers are a bunch of loyal and thoughtful people!
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Yes, kids are able to move out of our comfort zones, and use this ability of theirs frequently :) These things mentionned by you are normals (atleast in my family) when kids are under 3-4 years... I tried to be a "laissez-faire" parent type in this period, in order to kids to make experiments (good and bad also)...for exemple I let her - him burn her finger touching the stove, to pricks the finger with the fork, etc, etc... The reason was that is a smaller bad if he / she make these things under our supervision, and in the future they will remember about bad feelings of that, and don't repeat.
I think to be a good parent is heroic in itself.
Our best realisation (together with my wife) is that we reached kids are understanding (at least they do) that as bad as it is at that moment, we only wish them well )even if we will punish them).
An other thing which was hard... to accept defeat...when we playing board games, someone will win, someones will lose :) And both kids was angry when they lost, sometimes they organized against us when both of they lose... But right now, the situation has normalized and kids can congratulate the winner ;)
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That’s a nice technique: doing “bad” things under close supervision!
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