Real Parents

After Brendan was away from Day Care for a week, plus two weekends of course, I knew Marion was a little worried at how Brendan would react coming back, getting back into her routine and adjusting back to his “normal” life. When I picked Brendan up on Monday afternoon, I was surprised at her reaction. Not the typical “It was a rough day Mum” (remember the English accent), or “He’s cranky today Mum.”

Instead, we had this conversation:

Marion:“I don’t know what you’re doing, but you’re doing something right”
Rachel: “What’s that??”
M: “You are doing something right, he came back to me like he never left.”
R: “Oh?”
M: “I had no problems today, he just fell right back into his routine.”
R: “Well, we try to keep him on a pretty consistent routine at home too, nap times are around the same time, and bed time is always at 8:00.”
M: “A lot of parent’s are go, go, go, with no routine. You guys are real parents.”
R: “Thank you? I guess?”

It was a compliment I guess. A rather strange one to be called “Real Parents” but I appreciate her attempt. I was glad to hear Brendan didn’t give her a hard time back at Day Care. And it was nice to have confirmation that as parents we are doing something right. When everything else seems to be going wrong, he has bumps and bruises all over, he won’t eat well, I get temper-tantrums in the grocery store – but at least we’re doing something right.