I'm I Ordinary Enough?

Well, I just submitted my article for Ordinaryparent.com. I thought I was about 3 weeks late, but it turns out I sent my "almost done" email April 10, so it was closer to 5 weeks late. Two weeks per kid isn't too bad, I guess. And hey, I have triplets, so cut me some slack. The process of writing it could have been an article unto itself.

But its finished and off. I'll post a link to the article once its up and probably cross post the article here. For the time being I'm posting a short preview below the break.

What is a column from a dad of triplets doing on a site titled “Ordinary Parent?” Well, it is because in a lot of ways I’m no different than any other parent.

I’m aware that the mere idea of triplets scares a lot of people, even parents who raised four or even five kids of their own. People let us know that every time we leave the house. Or as @arweneliza recently tweeted to me: “Just the thought of triplets is terrifying to me.”

But believe if or not, being a triplet dad isn’t the nightmare you might expect. Well, it’s not the nightmare as you probably imagine it, at any rate.

Comments

NIGHTMARE: Three Kids; One Invite

Its a triplet parents worst nightmare, really. I only have triplets, so most of what I;m about to say about singletons is conjecture and assumption, but here goes: I imagine that when you have three kids of different ages its easy when only one of them is invited to a birthday party. Any younger child is probably interested in where an older sibling is going, but is easily refocused. Older children probably just don't care what a younger child is doing, but to the extent they are invested, I'd think its easy to explain to them. After all, they are probably in different schools, or at least different grades. They have different teachers, different classmates, and while they may share some friends, those are largely different as well. Not so with triplets When you have three kids all the same age they attend the same school; often in the same class (as ours do). So when only one of them receives an invite, as our daughter did, its hard not to feel slighted. After all, ...

Thoughts On Breastfeeding

I was going to post in this space about breastfeeding eventually. It started when I joined Twitter recently as @triplethedad (follow me!) and started following a bunch of Mom and Dad types. Although I previously experienced the ferver of the breastfeeding crowd, I was still taken aback by the militartism of some of them and the "us against them" attitude. I knew I would have to address it at some point, but honestly, as a Dad to formula fed triplets, I don't have a lot of experience or knowledge. And further, while I'm not 100% comfortable around breastfeeding women, I have no problem with them/it and realize what they are doing is totally and completely natural. So, between the lack of deep understanding and acceptance, I wasn't sure where to start. What I did know was that I wanted to address the unnecassary ferver around the topic and the seeming war between formula and breast. Luckily, Jamie Lynn of Iamnotthebabysitter.com beat me to it in a post o...

Nature v. Nurture; Nature Wins Everytime

Many parents have probably looked beamingly at their children and thought “what a wonderful job I did.” At times, at least. But what about the bad seed? Are parents responsible for that one, as well? These questions come down to whether our children arise from “nature” or “nurture.” Is it the genes we give them at birth, or the jeans we wear when we play with them that molds them, so to speak. Most parents don’t get a good shot at any type of scientific look at this. Even if you have three kids, they are likely spaced out over various periods in life featuring different levels of income, stress and parental availability. If nothing else, life is different with one than three, meaning that first one probably received a different level of attention – at least at first. But I’m somewhat unique here: I have all 3 at once. Same circumstances; same income; same attention. Its that experience that leads me to the belief that its definitely nature and not nurture. DS1 is a laugh machin...

Triple The Dad

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