Being a single parent is tough

Every so often, my wife’s job takes her out of town for an extended period. This week, she’s been in Benton for some sort of professional development that the school district sent her to so that she can teach it back to the rest of the faculty at some point this fall.

Benton isn’t super far away, but it’s far enough that she’s not driving back and forth each day. So, this week, I’m just a struggling single dad doing the best I can to raise my kds on my own. Full disclosure, they are 26, 24 and 16, so the hardest part is already done. I have had to haul my 16-year-old daughter all over the world and back because even though she’s got her driver’s license, she can’t drive on her own until August 17th.

And it just so happens that this week has been full of trips to pick things up… everything from fish for the new fish tank to fertilizer and mulch for the garden to taking her to the bank so she can open up a checking account for this new job she swears she’s getting just as soon as our trip to Atlanta is over in July.

On a side note: We actually arrived at the Regions Bank in Marion only to find it locked with a note about an emergency closure that we later found out was the robbery you might have read about in yesterday’s e-edition of the Times. In fact, looking at the timeline, we only missed actually being there for the robbery by about 15 or

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20 minutes, which is a little scary to think about.

And, she’s teaching the second-graders at our church’s VBS this week, so I have to take her up there in the morning and then pick her up each day at noon… which yes, is an interruption on my day, but I guess I really shouldn’t complain about my teenage daughter teaching Vacation Bible School, when there are certainly far worse ways a 16-year-old girl could spend a week of her summer break.

But anyway, as always, when my wife is away, I make a list (with her help of course) of all the things I need to get done in her absence, and I do try to get them all done, but it rarely works out, especially when you’ve got all these kids to raise, and feed… and it’s always the same. You feed them one day and they want to eat again the very next day! Am I right?

At least they’re older now.

She’s been in teaching or administrating for 22 years now, and over the course of that time, she’s left me to fend for myself with little ones at all stages of their lives. I think the craziest was when they were around 12, 10 and 2 and she had to spend five weeks in Searcy finishing up her accelerated course of study for her master’s degree from Harding. That was a fun time for sure.

I joke about it, but it really did used to be hard… so much so that I truly take my hat off to those of you out there who really are doing the whole single parent thing. I honestly don’t know how you find time to get it all done and still find time for yourself. I guess the real answer is, well, you dont… you just do the best you can to take care of business and hope for the best.

Well, anyway, my wife is supposed to be home this afternoon around 5 o’clock and those clothes on her side of the bed aren’t going to fold themselves…