Parenting Archives - Page 65 of 720

I’ve been a single parent for exactly 1 year today and I have some thoughts

It's been one year since I became a single parent again. I've said before that I'm really weird with milestones and anniversaries because they mark moments in my life that were impactful for whatever reason. Maybe I'm too sentimental but it's just sorta the way I am. Everything in my life changed on August 10, 2019. I've been quite busy these last 365 days because the kids require the vast majority of my time and energy. Who am I kidding, they require more time and energy than I have on a good day. While none of this has been or likely will ever be easy, I've experienced a great deal of personal growth along the way. I'm learning a great deal about myself. What I deserve, what I don't deserve,…

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August 12, 2020

COVID19 / My thoughts / Planning / School

I haven’t figured out how to approach all of this

I'm going to be splitting my focus this week between work and getting the kids ready to begin school next week. I have an interview first thing this morning and then a business meeting in the afternoon. After that, I'm working with the boys to help them get organized and prepped for school to begin next Monday. There are a few phone calls I need to make to the school to figure out some of the logistics that I have questions about. I need to look at a new desk for the boys as well. We have one but I'd like for each of the boys to have their own setup. I haven't figured out how to approach all of this just yet. There are a few things that I'll…

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August 11, 2020

Inspirational Posts / My thoughts

My little victory over #depression and a gentle reminder to all of you

First of all, I really appreciate all the love and support. We're all in this together and I sometimes forget that. Thank you for the many reminders. ☺ I wanted to share a bit more about something I alluded to in the previous post (see here). Yesterday, Elliott did his daily can we go walking Dad. I wish I could take them whenever they wanted me to but the truth is, I honestly don't feel it's always safe. There are also times when I simply lack the motivation and energy. That's usually due complications related to my ongoing war with depression. Without fail, Elliott asked me to take them all to Quail Hollow, a park within driving distance from our house. It's one of our favorite places to visit during…

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August 9, 2020

Confessions / Depression Management / My thoughts

I’m losing interest in all the things I once enjoyed

It's been a pretty rough couple of days. Scratch that. It's been a pretty rough year. I'm feeling a great deal of pressure right now and it doesn't look to be getting better, anytime soon. I'm fact, it's likely to only get worse. School is getting closer and closer and I'm getting more and more nervous about this whole distance learning thing. I don't really worry so much about the kids because I believe they can totally handle this. I'm nervous that I won't be able to handle this. I've been working a lot the last few days but unfortunately, it's not translating into much financially, at the moment. That fact alone has me unable to sleep at night. I know that literally millions and millions of people are dealing…

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August 9, 2020

COVID19 / Distance Learning / My thoughts / Planning / School

Distance learning for the first time is pretty f*cking scary

School is getting closer and closer and I'm getting nervous. We will be distance learning for the first time because there isn't a snowballs chance in hell that I would put my kids in a classroom right now. I know it's the right thing to do but I'm questioning whether I'm the right person for the job. Unfortunately, I'm the only person for the job, so I don't really have a choice. Everyone is stressed out and lockdown is continuing to take its toll. The house setup is not really conducive to distance learning and I'm not sure what I'm going to do yet. Using the dining room table is probably the easiest solution but the boys may end up distracting each other if I don't separate them. Ideally, they'd…

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August 5, 2020

Inspirational Posts / My thoughts / Navigating Divorce

Navigating The In-Between

So last night was pretty rough. We're coming up on the one year mark since Lizze moved out and while I feel like the kids are doing better, there's still a tremendous amount of pain. Each of the kids deal with everything in different ways. Gavin simply accepts whatever he's told, never questioning anything. Emmett doesn't want to make waves, so he largely avoids any type of conflict but is angry. Elliott accepts nothing and keeps everything bottled up until he explodes. It was like an emotional nuclear bomb exploded in my living room last night. Elliott unloaded a great deal of what he's been keeping inside and all I could really do was listen. I don't agree with everything he said but I won't take away how he feels.…

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August 5, 2020

COVID19 / Distance Learning / My thoughts / Planning

We basically have 2 weeks before school begins

School supplies have started to arrive for Emmett. Elliott already received a textbook and laptop a few weeks back. Emmett received books, art supplies, a science kit and his laptop. The math workbook is enormous. We have about 2 weeks left before school is supposed to begin and frankly, I'm nervous. Things are already so challenging and that's without having to try and manage distance learning. At this point, I'm not even sure what's going to happen in Ohio. It's not yet been decided as far as I know. I suspect the school year will at the very least, be delayed. We'll have to see what happens and how it impacts us. For right now however, I'm just hoping that I can pull this off. I told Gavin that we…

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August 1, 2020

My thoughts

I let people get to me today

Generally speaking, I have pretty thick skin and I don't take to heart some of the unkind things that are said to me. I figure it's not worth getting upset over and more often than not, I simply don't care. I get my share of hate mail but I don't often talk about it because I just don't. Today was a particularly brutal day and it came from several different sources. I vented a bit eariler and you can read that here. I will never understand what drives a person to feel their opinion is so important that they are just compelled to dump it on me. I really don't need to know that you think I'm a terrible person or a failure as a father. For whatever reason, I…

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July 31, 2020