If This Photo of 2 Parents in an Airport Doesn't Sum Up Parenting, We Don't Know What Does
There are many known places where the challenges of parenting are magnified tenfold: grocery stores, malls, restaurants, and, of course, airports. It can often feel like you're juggling three balls with one hand (which, last time I checked, is relatively impossible). When one dad witnessed the truest form of parental struggles while waiting for his flight, he couldn't resist snapping a photo of the moment and sharing his thoughts on the power couple that handled their stressful situation as a team.
Clint Edwards, who runs No Idea What I'm Doing: A Daddy Blog, was at Spokane International Airport (without his kids for once, he noted) when he came across two parents who he referred to as "parenting champs" because of how they were juggling their two small children. While the mother comforted one of the crying babies, the dad dove in on the other's diaper change without hesitation. In a recent Facebook post about the couple, Edwards set the scene that was unfolding before his eyes. "Before that, both kids waddled off into the restaurant," he wrote. "The mother caught them, while the dad was busy breaking down the stroller." Sounds familiar, huh?
"They look a little frazzled. Their flight is about to leave. But they are handling it," the father said, before moving on to explain how parents often feel like they're "failing" when, in reality, they're actually "kicking ass."
This is what parenting looks like. If you two are out there, reading this, I want you to know that you are kicking ass. Taking kids to the airport sucks so bad, and yet you are working as a team. I've been there sooo many times, and I know that it can feel like you are loosing it. That you are failing at this whole parenting gig. But from my opinion, as a father of three, you are doing it.
As parents, I think it's good to hear that you are doing something right. And nothing can feel more wrong than taking small kids to the airport, or out to dinner, or to the mall, or to any other number of stressful parenting situations. And in that moment, when you're knee deep in a steaming hot public toddler meltdown, it can feel like you are failing. But you know what, you're not. If you are there, and you are caring for your children, you are doing exactly what you should.
We couldn't have possibly said it better ourselves. Cheers to all those ass-kicking parents out there — you're killin' it.