Category: Parenting

Toddlers are hard. At the time of this writing, our kids are 5 and 1 years old, and they demand a lot of attention. So when my wife brought up wanting to care for a rescue dog for some time, my initial response was along the lines of: “Are you mad? We’re already at our absolute limit. We have no energy reserves left! This will break us!”

She knew that. But my wife has this fascinating ability to not let rationality get in the way of her desires. If she’s got her mind set on something, she becomes very obsessive, very quickly. My life’s motto, on the other hand, is much more in the spirit of “If it ain’t broke, don’t change it!”.

However, from experience, I know that

• I can’t fight her on this, and
• I’ll probably love being forced outside of my comfort zone.

So on Saturday at 11:30 pm, I drove to a highway gas station to pick up an Italian rescue puppy that we would care for until she finds a permanent home here in Germany. Since then, I’ve spent the past two nights sleeping on the floor next to her, got up at 2 am to clean up the mess she made, and went for a walk outside in the freezing dark.

And now, what was previously my limit is squarely inside my comfort zone!

There’s a german saying that “laughter is the best medicine”, and for exhausted parents like my wife and I, we found a bit of a pain killer in Michael McIntyre’s comedy. Of course, pain killers always just cover up the symptoms and don’t fix the issue. But we’ll take it.

My personal and very relatable highlight:

You never love your children more than when they’re unconscious but still breathing. It’s a lovely moment.

Michael McIntyre

Beyond that, I found a lot of similarities between Michael’s bid on childless couples vs. parents and how my wife and I keep reminding ourselves how we had absolutely ZERO real problems when we didn’t have kids yet. Of course, you only ever know afterward, and perception is relative.

How I miss getting up and having a shower and then coffee in the morning all by myself.

How utterly unimaginable this feels now.

Enjoy!

As daycare centres are closed due to the ongoing pandemic, our 19 month old toddler has been spending the past 4+ weeks at home with my wife and I. We knew pretty soon that we needed a strict routine for all of us to stay sane in these unprecedented times.

Continue reading “Our COVID-19 Schedule as Working Parents with a Toddler”