Yeah, it's the kids that stress me out. Riiiight...

Have you ever had one of those conversations that aren’t really about what you’re talking about? The true meaning is conveyed through innuendo and subconscious body language, etc. Sometimes we just blurt out a phrase that’s not the truth at all.

This morning, when the teenager woke me because she missed the bus, ‘You kids are KILLING me!’ was what popped out of my mouth.

We’ve all laugh at the sitcoms and comedies that depict a frazzled parent. As I add kids to my own family, that stuff gets even funnier.

Who could get mad at a 'Steampunk Mad Hatter?'

It was mostly in jest that I said ‘You kids are KILLING me!’ But it also had nothing to do with them…

The past three days at work have been nothing but, for lack of a better term, sheer hell. Murphy’s Law was not only in full effect, but it threw me on the ground, kicked me in the ribs, spit on me, picked me up and knocked me down again.

Nothing seemed to go right. The associates under me didn’t seem to want to follow direction, and what’s worse, they didn’t want to think for themselves and come up with their own solutions. For anything.

After 3 15-17 hour days of this, (without a full lunch break mind you, I’d finally break down and have to get something to eat and sit for 15 minutes) one gets a bit … irritable.

So when I got home last night, and Calli ran to me and said, ‘Daddy home!’, I was very happy to see her, but I also felt like collapsing into bed. So, as these things go, last night was one of those nights where she was awake every ten minutes asking for milk or a toy or just generally not wanting to sleep.

At one point I remember, in a sleep deprived haze, saying, ‘Can’t we just got to sleep?‘

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The thing that kept me going through those tough days of going in early and staying late was the fact that when I was done, I would be off for nine days of vacation. Awesome. The first day I planned on sleeping in until dinner time.

Alas, I have kids. So when Kat shook my foot, wrenching me from blissful slumber, and I saw her hovering over me, I knew it meant one thing: she missed the bus and needed a ride. Go away kid, ya bother me…

The point of this post isn’t to complain, rather, I’d like to point out the dangers of bringing home the attitude you may have gotten from work. Don’t take it out on the kids.

As a general rule, I don’t. I usually unload everything on my wife, (which is fair, right?) and play with the kids to relax. I don’t yell at them because I’m frustrated with something else … most of the time…

So I’m throwing this out into the Universe to remind myself, I’m off work now. I’m on vacation. Time to exhale!

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