Exhausting
Sep. 29th, 2023 02:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
spryngThis morning I had to get the Toddler into diapers that were not his beloved PJ Mask diapers. The store was out, my wife got what was left, which was Mickey.
Fine. I show him the new diapers have a choice! Donald or Goofy? Which does he want? Sometimes simply offering a choice works. But this time, no. "I want Catboy!" Okay fine, but we don't have Catboy. Now he's running around his sister's room without any diaper at all and said sister is getting upset that he might pee on something. Fair, honestly.
So I wrangle him into the new diapers, despite his protests. "No diaper!" He tries to take them off. I wrangle him into pants. "No pants!" Oh, but you see, you'll want to wear pants today because it's cold out. "Cold out?" Do you want to see? "No pants!" But he lets me pick him up and we step out the front door and feel that it is, just a mite, chilly.
"See? Pants are a good idea today." No further protests. He lets me put him down and he runs to the kitchen to harass a cat, diaper dislike completely forgotten.
I relaid all of them to my wife after kid drop-off and admit that the pants and going outside were all a part of my plan to get him to accept the diaper and she just looked at me, then said, "Your thought process is completely exhausting." And I just... started laughing. Because it is. It absolutely is. I am playing 3D chess with this kid and if I just layer the distractions, he ultimately forgets whatever he was upset about at first, unless it really matters to him.
And likewise, I am exhausted. And I wonder, what will I be capable of when I'm not playing 3D chess with a toddler, when I'm not planning birthday parties and weekend fun and meal planning and Christmas (oh fucking god, Christmas) and Halloween and travel and transportation and library visits and enrichment and everything else that goes into being the stay-at-home spouse-with-a-job.
I don't know but sometimes it's so much and I get overwhelmed to the point of feeling very stupid and then I have a meeting at work where I'm still somehow competent at my job and I feel a little better, just a mite, and perhaps, in the distraction, forget I do not like the diaper I am wearing.
Fine. I show him the new diapers have a choice! Donald or Goofy? Which does he want? Sometimes simply offering a choice works. But this time, no. "I want Catboy!" Okay fine, but we don't have Catboy. Now he's running around his sister's room without any diaper at all and said sister is getting upset that he might pee on something. Fair, honestly.
So I wrangle him into the new diapers, despite his protests. "No diaper!" He tries to take them off. I wrangle him into pants. "No pants!" Oh, but you see, you'll want to wear pants today because it's cold out. "Cold out?" Do you want to see? "No pants!" But he lets me pick him up and we step out the front door and feel that it is, just a mite, chilly.
"See? Pants are a good idea today." No further protests. He lets me put him down and he runs to the kitchen to harass a cat, diaper dislike completely forgotten.
I relaid all of them to my wife after kid drop-off and admit that the pants and going outside were all a part of my plan to get him to accept the diaper and she just looked at me, then said, "Your thought process is completely exhausting." And I just... started laughing. Because it is. It absolutely is. I am playing 3D chess with this kid and if I just layer the distractions, he ultimately forgets whatever he was upset about at first, unless it really matters to him.
And likewise, I am exhausted. And I wonder, what will I be capable of when I'm not playing 3D chess with a toddler, when I'm not planning birthday parties and weekend fun and meal planning and Christmas (oh fucking god, Christmas) and Halloween and travel and transportation and library visits and enrichment and everything else that goes into being the stay-at-home spouse-with-a-job.
I don't know but sometimes it's so much and I get overwhelmed to the point of feeling very stupid and then I have a meeting at work where I'm still somehow competent at my job and I feel a little better, just a mite, and perhaps, in the distraction, forget I do not like the diaper I am wearing.
