Parenting is like a jungle
So I was on the treadmill last night doing a Peloton workout with Jess King herself and my handy dandy weighted vest and she said “parenthood is like a jungle”. And then she went on to kind of discuss like why that is. I have never resonated with something more in this moment.
Maybe it was the 8:40 pm workout (*sigh* if you know me, you know that’s creeping in on my bedtime but a girl’s gotta workout when she can and the AMOUNT of dishes two people and a baby can make in a day is seriously impressive and very time consuming) or the new babbles Elliot has been doing that sounds like dinosaur noises but man did this message really just hit me right there.
Whether it be the chaos of the constant “go-go-go” of the day between work, daycare, caring for the dog and keeping the house from burning down or withering into a black hole of dirt, or the quiet calm of the night, low lights with a sleeping baby, snuggly dog, sound machine and rest, every day is different yet the same.
Who’s going to be the rouge one today? The baby? The dog? Me with a migraine? Johnny with a late work meeting? We are constantly try to adjust and go with the ebs and flows while also sticking to a routine and schedule. Are we crazy? Yeah, highly likely but I always tell myself “people do this every day, all the time, day after day…”. Each day has it’s unique challenges that require flexibility, patience and resilience.
This is something I am still learning about and trying to navigate. I’m going to let you in on a little secret…It’s driving me nuts!! I do pride myself as someone who is able to figure things out fairly quickly. This whole parenthood thing is quite the humbling situation. Things coming at you in every direction and you just trying to dodge them….it must be how those targets feel at the Buzz lightyear ride in Disney World. “Duck!” “Run for Cover” “Not the hair!!!”
But seriously. If you think about how much a baby learns daily, all the new sights and sounds and routines. The outdoor smells. The feeling of carpets versus wood floors versus blankets. Dog hair/fur. Their little tiny brains are processing things a mile a minute! But newsflash! So is yours. You are learning this whole new way of “being”.
Being a parent. Being a caretaker. Being a food source. Being a teacher. Your life is now a complete 180 of how it was before. Sure you aren’t learning the sound of a car for the first time, but you are learning how to parent! And there’s no real true guide book or direction sheet out there for that. Because everyone’s experience is just so different.
So I’ll tell you what I tell myself (or rather Johnny says to me to simmer me down of my pot of boiling water)….as long as they eat, sleep and play, you are doing EVERYTHING right. They are safe. They are happy. You can breathe.
