Yes I left this blog high and dry. All the time I was gonna spend documenting the joys and challenges of fatherhood, I've spent in the trenches of the joys and challenges of fatherhood. Plus I have facebook and twitter now, which allows me to more easily share the wacky poignant moments of our lives.
So what have you missed? I'm talking to the blog here, I know he/she is mad at me for ignoring he/she for so long, so indulge me why I pay a little attention to he/she.
The boy as I affectionately call him on Facebook and Twitter (sorry blog, didn't mean to throw them in your face again, just trying to give you context.) The boy just turned 7. 7!! Can you believe it?? 7!!
We threw him a birthday party of course. The theme was magic, he wanted it to be a pokemon party, we didn't, so we overruled him in that old-fashioned parenting kind of way by just ignoring his request. He's getting hip to that, so we'll have to come up with a new tactic soon.
Man it was the most fun of all the birthday parties we've ever had, Mario The Magician. He was so great with the kids. The tone of his show is what really impressed me, he engaged them, he challenged them and he was always in control. It was a great parenting lesson. Of course it was easy for him, he only had to do it for an hour and he literally had a bag full of tricks and a bird, did I forget to mention the bird. And he was paid HANDSOMELY!!
We parents don't have the luxury of a bag full of tricks, or a bird, or an hourly wage. We just have to do it, every day, and the struggle for the right tone feels like a losing battle. Our challenges are the early morning, the getting ready for school, the getting up way too early after going to bed way too late. The get dressed, eat your breakfast, brush your teeth, make your bed tone. The tone that is firm and patient and encouraging and loving and consistent. Try to find that tone at 6am on 3 or 4 hours sleep.
I need a bird. And perhaps an hourly wage.
I'll be back sooner then later blog. I promise.
