The Reluctant Parent
Parenting is getting strapped to a rollercoaster of very wild and raw emotions. The highs feel like pure bliss. Seeing my children chase each other while making animal sounds make me laugh genuinely from my soul. However, such highs are few and far between. Most of the time, it’s getting bitch-slapped by the low, lower and lowest. The unrelenting demands, the tantrums, and just the noise level in general are emotional minefields that I’m forced to step on. I used to have a Co-FT who hated being at my school so much that he couldn’t stop sighing. I didn’t have the heart to confide in him that I keep sighing at home.
If I had known the full traumatic extent of parenting, I think I would still chosen to be one. This doesn’t mean that I don’t feel the weight of the opportunity costs I have incurred. Parenting is the antithesis of fun and freedom, and every day I long for the light at the end of the tunnel when I can get back both.
P.S: The above two paragraphs just formed in my mind while I was trying to feed my feisty daughter dinner just now. And yes, Sensei knows that he’s a bodacious writer. xP
