Thread by @ElieNYC

I usually share *positive* stories about my kids and my relations to them. But, you know, those are the best bits. Overall, the struggle is real. Here's half an hour from my life today:

The 5yo was supposed to draw a picture of winter stuff yesterday, which of course he didn't do, even though I specifically told him to do it, yesterday, I didn't check that it was done.

So, today, right before his lunch break, the teacher says he needs to bring the picture with him for his class in half an hour. I run around finding him paper and say "DRAW A SNOWMAN" then go to make his lunch.

But now I'm rushing and so I turn two things on at the same time that I've know since I moved into this house I cannot turn on at the same time lest the circuit flips.

It breaks, so I have to go into my (still unfinished) basement to fix it, requiring me to find and put on shoes

Hot lunch is no longer a real option, so when I get back upstairs I immediately start going through the fridge, looking for a Lunchables or something. I find it, give it to my kids, who then start complaining. "Don't eat it then."

They go back to their break while I try to reboot the internet (which turned off when I flipped the circuit breaker). I do that. But now it's a minute before class.

I go out to the 5yo's room and... he's drawn nothing. I get a sob story about white pencils and crayons on paper.

Now I'm enraged, but can't yell at him because his class is about to start. Only the computer, which also went off when I flipped the circuit, won't turn on. I try and try. It won't go on.

He's five minutes late for class before I finally, painfully, interrupt my wife's work meeting asking for help. Turns out the strip plug also flipped off, which I didn't check, and just needed to be turned back on. My wife goes back to the meeting.

... she comes down 20 minutes later, and gracefully encourages me to get off of the floor of the bathroom where I'd been sobbing for 20 minutes.