Things I Hate About Being a Father

{For just two weeks, we are handing over our computers to the men in our lives and turning this little piece of the world wide web into Houston Dads Blog!  Read along with their joys and their struggles, and find out why we are so very thankful to have these awesome dads in our lives.}

While the past year as a father has been the most amazing experience of my life, there are times – like with anything else in life – when you are overcome by situations and this tiny voice bubbles up from within that says…”dude, that sucked!”

Speaking of bubbling up, one of the things I hate the most is the bathtub deuce. The picture above was taken of me {yes, those are Jack’s pants on my head} just moments before realizing that after washing his hair, body, and playing with him for an extra ten minutes, he had dropped a man-sized poop in his bath water. For those who have not experienced this, it has a suck factor of 10. Why? Because the first thing you realize is the bath you thought you just concluded was merely a redundancy exercise. When this happens you have to remove all of the toys in the bathwater – if you are like me it looks like a baby stew with toys floating everywhere – then take your little pooper out of the tub, clean the tub, and repeat the whole process all over again. I literally pray this does not happen before every bath.

You know what rhymes with pray? Getting pooped or peed on! Okay, so maybe that doesn’t rhyme at all, but it isn’t fun. No explanations needed here right?

Moving past the physical un-pleasantries, I’ve learned like those before me that not being able to “fix it” when Jack has been in pain has been tough. Not unlike my fellow dads out there, I am a fixer, a solution finder, a problem solver, and when Jack has suffered through ear infections and pain from cutting teeth, it has been hard to accept that I have done all I can do – when all I can do wasn’t enough. How about when you cause the pain? Holding the little guy down while the nurse stabs him with needles isn’t cool either.

One of my favorite sayings is “some days you are the dog and others you are the hydrant.” On the days where you are the hydrant {no, I’m not returning to the getting peed on scenario} and all you want to do is come home, eat, and fall into bed but can’t, is hard sometimes. This is when my military training and conditioning kicks in, and I tell myself to suck it up and forge ahead…after telling myself how uncool the situation is of course.

After a good night’s sleep, having to leave Chelsea and Jack for ten hours Monday through Friday is the final entry on my list of things I hate about being a dad. I love my job and take great pride in what I do professionally. One of my commitments to my family is to reach my full-potential, but leaving the family behind in order to do it is not my fave. This is probably harder for Chelsea because she leaves Jack with the nanny before heading to the office and this is often times met with tears and little outstretched arms.

As you can tell, my “things I hate about being a father” list is quite short. That is because I love being a father! I’ve learned over the past year that being a pooper scooper, hydrant, and exhausted deserter is granular in comparison to the joy that Jack brings me on a daily basis.