The Realities of Parenting

Last week, Deborah and I were talking about the things we looked forward to most before we became parents...and then admitted that most of them hadn't really turning out the way we had planned. I thought about Pre-kid Vikki and the hundreds of snowmen she imagined building with her kids. But Pre-kid Vikki didn't think about Minnesota winters and windchill factors and the way giant snowman bottoms end up covered in leaves and sticks and look like complete and utter hell most of the time. You expect your snowmen to look like this:

But sometimes, they look like this:

But, most of the time, they end up looking like this:

In our joint post on VillageQ, I wrote this about the reality of winter with kids compared to the imagined ideal:

All winter activities that involve snow also involve exclamations like, “I HAVE SNOW ON MY FACE! I AM DYING BECAUSE SNOW ON FACE!” followed by tears and wild accusations as to who is to blame for the snow on the face. Snowball fights never end well because they are “unfair” or “icy” or “too snowbally.” Sledding is filled with peril. If you send the kids down the hill alone, you feel compelled to run after them screaming “WATCH OUT FOR THE TREE! ABORT!” If you go down with them, you end up with a face full of snow as you careen wildly down a hill with a toddler at the controls. And the hot chocolate? Get ready for a standoff about marshmallows.

Head over and check out the rest of the post and, as winter approaches, adjust your expectations.