Hi guys,
My Dad is an asshole.
He called to wish me a happy birthday. I didn’t answer, probably because, you know, I was caring for my newborn baby. He left a sarcastic message about me not answering. When he called the next day I didn’t answer again and was left an even more annoyed, sarcastic message.
When I called him back he immediately gave me a hard time. He thinks he’s funny or charming or something. He’s not.
At this point, I was very tired and on edge. Baby George was getting on a legitimate schedule in the first week and the past two days it seemed to fly right out the window. I wasn’t sleeping as much and George wanted to be held more in between feedings.
My Dad continued to try and make me feel bad. “You can send pictures and videos all day but you can’t call me back?”
I send pictures and videos every day because on the day George was born, my Mom requested that I send her and Dad a picture every single day for a month - because that’s when they’ll finally get to see him. I thought it was a fair request.
And now my Dad was giving me shit for it.
He then asked, “How’s motherhood?” I told him, in all my frustration, “It’s hard.”
He thought that was hilarious. “Oh, you keep saying how great he is and it seems like you guys have it so easy.”
I could feel myself getting emotional and defensive. No matter how great our baby is, no matter how well he’s eating and no matter how well he’s sleeping, caring for a newborn is really hard. It just is. There’s no way around it. The fact that my Dad - a father of five - didn’t understand that, was infuriating.
At this point I could hear George crying inside so I ended the call. Dad tried to end the conversation by telling me he was proud of me and “Welcome to the club,” but I didn’t want to hear it.
I walked into the room where Sam was trying to soothe George and I started crying.
Maybe I’m overly emotional, overly sensitive, overly hormonal, and overly tired.
Or maybe my Dad is just an asshole.
Blog of the Week
George is two weeks old and sometimes I look at him and think, “I can’t believe I waited so long to have you.”
But there are plenty of reasons why I waited until I was 35 years old to have my first child. I wrote an essay that answers the question: Is anyone ever really ready to have a baby?
Parenting Goals
This TikTok is amazing.
Sam tried it.
It did not work.
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Until next week,
Charlie