Kids Are Mirrors That Reflect Us

The other day I got really down on myself about how much I was yelling at my triplets. It seemed like not a day was passing where I wasn’t expressing frustration or anger. If the constant fighting wasn’t triggering me, it was the way they managed to make a 30 second process take 30 minutes.

Now listen, my kids are really good. They listen fairly well and are independent, sometimes to a fault. Graded on a 4-year-old curve, I would say they are pretty great.

But even on vacation I found their gross stalling galling. During a time I hypothetically am at my most relaxed, I couldn’t handle how something as simple as getting swim trunks on required the intervention of the National Guard.

Thankfully, I was buoyed by others – or enjoyed a bit of schadenfreude at least– when I posted my personal disappointment on a Facebook group for triplet dads. Turns out, it wasn’t just me. Lots of Dads felt the same way.

One of them was on a two-day trip to Legoland with the goal of not yelling. Not once. Lofty goal.

I'm fully aware parents can and do fail and that its OK. But it got me thinking: could I go two days? Could I go two whole days without yelling at my triplets, regardless of what they did?

I’ll be honest: I worried I couldn’t. And I didn’t have Legoland to compete with.

Too much of their behavior annoyed me. The constant badgering on questions they knew the answer to, the giant time sucks they represent, the lollygagging, the need for constant satisfaction. The fighting.

But as I wrote this post I realized something else. Everything that annoys me about my kids is a flaw of my own.

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, ...

Is Mocking Redheads Bullying? If Not, What Is?

Its Super Bowl time, and since my team didn't make it, I haven't been paying very close attention. But I got to talking with Aaron Gouveia on Twitter after I noticed one of his tweets about how a redhead would never QB a team to said Super Bowl. Essentially, Aaron was mocking redheads. My team doesn't have a redheaded QB, so we are safe (for now!), but I mentioned to him that this might fall under the term of bullying. Aaron, in case you don't know, is rightfully well known in the Daddy-bloggersphere for his excellent Daddy Files blog. Seriously, go read it now, and follow @DaddyFiles on Twitter. And before I really get going on this rant, let me say: I get it. Even as great as Gouveia is, he probably can't hold candle to the prestige, money and social status of a Pro-Bowl NFL player like Andy Dalton. Andy Dalton could never do another thing in the NFL and probably still have more name recognition, money and power than Go...

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...

Triple The Dad

Search This Blog