Being a Temporary Single Parent

One of Us is Out the Country

Mrs. Nola Nerd Couple is in South Korea as I write this. The Nola Nerd Baby and I are at home. The Mrs. is making kimchi and visiting the DMZ. I’m performing the Sisyphean task of cleaning up after a toddler. In other words, I’m a temporary single parent.

Of course, my wife was asked who was watching the baby. Luckily, she thinks I’m more than capable.

The Fun Parts

This is easy: spending almost every waking second with my girl. She is an excellent baby that loves life. She only has thrown two tantrums. I don’t count the times when she is hungry or overtired as tantrums. Both times she wanted to play with something I didn’t want her to play with. I held my ground, and she quickly got over it.

My favorite time of day is when we watch Super Simple Songs and we do the hand motions with it. She almost has Wheels on the Bus down.

So far, the highlight was going to the mall. In this area of the world, it’s often in the 90s with nearly 100% humidity, or it’s storming. Being outside for too long is just dangerous. So we went to the mall with no intentions of doing anything but walking around. I let my girl walk around choosing the store she went in. She got tons of smiles and compliments.

The Not-so Fun

You know the part about every waking second? It’s okay if you feel good. If you had a bad nights sleep or a headache, it doesn’t matter. There is not another person here to take over.

Also, not having another person means I get every stinky diaper!

It makes going to the bathroom and cooking challenging for me. Luckily, our living room is in full view of the kitchen. Going to the bathroom at home is fine, but forget about it at a place of business unless they have family bathrooms.

Oh, and that mall thing. My baby walked into two stores: Victoria Secrets and Kay Jewelers.

Heaven help me.

The Verdict

Well, we miss mom terribly. I can sometimes tell when the baby gets cranky its that she doesn’t want just me. She needs her mommy. FaceTime is a beautiful thing, and we do it twice a day. But how can you hold someone through a phone?

I can do this. And I do have family that can lend a helping had near me. And I’m sure a lot of our friends wouldn’t mind watching her as well.

However, I never want to do this full time. I’m exhausted at the end of the day. Bless those that do parent alone or, because in our area of the world a lot of people work jobs where they are gone for weeks at a time, the parents that stay home.

I love parenting with my wife around. I also love having my wife around.

Now, to get some time to do some cleaning now that the little one is asleep so we can start the cycle again tomorrow.