Appreciate Your Parents

I know I have talked about this before- but it is so true – you really appreciate your parents once you become a parent yourself.

Especially since I’m a “single dad” right now – it is overwhelming.

Yet at the same time, kids just show you basic, raw human nature. Want food, sleep, entertainment. And just directly showing that they want it. No hidden indirectness – they cry, fight, scream to get what they want.

Getting to go down and re-live memory lane. Preparing for school with my mom. Not wanting to get out of bed (although those cold winter mornings in Connecticut made it much harder to get out of bed than the chilly mornings in Thailand).

The not wanting to eat certain food. Not thinking that the parent spent so much time and money getting that food prepared and put on the table. Trying to teach the kids they need to appreciate there is food on the table, in abundance – it is always more food then they are able to eat.

As we get older, maybe we learn to appreciate the sacrifices a parent went through to bring us up. Sure, we realize it, and we say thank you.

But not until you are a parent yourself do you really see the lifestyle shift, the daily morning til night oversight and tasks that need to be done.

Having them both in school full time has helped a lot.

##Basic Tasks For Kids In School
Maybe writing out the tasks from morning til night on a school day and then on a weekend will help.

Weekdays (school days)
6am – I’ve been waking up (used to be 5am, then 5:30am) try to get an hour or so before the kids wake up
Meditate 999
Exercise/stretch, Read a bit, morning routing stuff
7am – try to wake the kids up. Turn on some kid’s music on the smartphone.
Prepare breakfast for the kids – normally toast , peanut butter, jam , boiled eggs, oatmeal
7:30am – force the kids to get out of bed – they resist and cry and scream.
Wash their face, brush teeth, put on school uniform.
Get them to eat. This is where the appreciating needs to improve (kids these days!)
8am – drive them to school. Either Grab taxi (may get a car soon) or the neighbors helpin out
Rest of morning – GRIND – this is my $$$ time to get content creations and SOP systems made.
Lunch – kids still in school (we insisted to find a full time school for them, no half days!)
Afternoon – management, phone calls
3:30pm, go to school to pick them up
4:00pm maid comes to help out with cleaning and a little bit of cooking and helping with kids.
Dinner is being made (normally by Wendy) and I am playing with the kids, try to take them outside, to the playground, but mostly at home.
5:30pm – dinner – but usually kids dont want to eat until 6 or 630, we think they eat big lunch at school.
7pm – bath time! Brush teeth, change into pajamas
730pm – TV / reading time. The deal normally is, TV, book, then more TV, then another book.
900pm – the struggle to get them to sleep, which normally takes until about 10pm

Weekends:
Let them sleep later, til like 8am or 830am. Breakfast (my cheat day on the diet is Saturday, so PANCAKES!),.
I still try to work in the morning on the weekend, so the kids and wife stay home and hang out til lunch time
Afternoon – the kids really don’t NAP – so we skip it and go out to a park or meet other families in the neighborhood.
Evening – similar routine as the weekday, shower, Tv, books, sleep.

So this is the grind – for I’m not sure how many more years. I can imagine until they finish high school right? But the older they get the easier it seems to get as they can do more and more by themselves. Still a bit of a transition as they still like being dressed and having someone put their shoes on – but when its only daddy here – they are doing that ON THEIR OWN. Hehe.

I still remember the days when my mom would have my sister and I singing in the morning to prepare to go to school – Go go, go go go go – fight fight , fight fight fight, win win, win win win win – GO FIGHT WIN! Get us all excited to tackle the day ahead of us.

Do wish my kids could walk to school. We are about 15 minute walk from the school – but it is crossing 1 highway and then a massive highway intersection to get there. Maybe when they are older we can do it (daddy does that walk sometimes to go pick up the kiddies).

Anyway- if you’re a parent reading this how about your daily schedule? Similar? Any tips for us here.