Single Parenting Does Not Rock
I don’t know how single parents do it, especially with little kids. Over the past two weeks Maniac Baby and his older brother, Mr. “6 Going on 16″, have run me ragged. And I say that while doing the single parent gig under really good circumstances: I’m working part-time, they have good day care, I have a reliable car, a nice place to live, medical insurance, I don’t have to pinch pennies for their food, and the whole situation is temporary. I’m lucky to have all that going for me, so, like I said, I don’t know how most single parents do it - take away even one of those conditions and it would get a lot harder.
The part that’s particularly challenging for me is preparing 3 meals a day, as I haven’t done much cooking since Maria and I got married (almost 8 years ago!). I did better providing meals for the boys in Tokyo. There it was easy to get healthy meals from the grocery stores - they carry a variety of noddle, fish, rice, and egg dishes made fresh daily. Here in Philly, the meals that are easy to get are mostly some combination of salt, sugar, fat, and grease, so instead of feeding them that stuff, I’m cooking as best I can.
Maria is back on Friday - 4 days. Not that I’m counting ;-). The boys and I talk with her on Skype every night. We have webcams so we can see each other. It’s especially nice for Eidan, since he’s not old enough to understand the situation. This way he still gets to see Mommy - in blurry two-dimensional form, anyway. Maria says she has some great pictures from her trips to the Philippines and Vietnam - maybe I can persuade her to write another blog post when she gets back.
Here are a couple of totally gratuitous pictures of the boys:
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Eidan in the playground at Kai’s kindergarten (Takanawa Yochien)
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Kai outside the Tokyo International Forum
