in praise of parents raising kids solo

The boys have been so unbelievably needy the last few days. If this keeps up I'm going to have to grow a kangaroo pouch just to get stuff done.

I don't blame the boys. They've been as so horribly sick. Little noses have been running. Ear drums oozing. Tummies aching. Vomit flying. Poop exploding. Fever lingering. It's been truly awful for them. They wrap their little bodies around me tightly as if doing this will release magical powers that will make their aches and pains go away. I suppose it's comforting for them to have mommy so close. It's comforting for me, too.

It's times like these that I'm reminded how lucky I am to have the Good Man, who does more than his fair share of raising and caring for the boys and deals with a tired, cranky wife so beautifully. I really don't know how single parents do it alone or people like Maternal Tales whose husband went out of town for 53 days straight.

How do you take two clingy toddlers to the doctor's office? I'm certain it's been done before but I can't imagine how these single parents manage it without going crazy. Life is frantic enough with toddlers on a good day.

I'm told by one Facebook friend, a mom of 2 teenagers, that parents' lives are never NOT busy. It just becomes a different kind of busy when kids get older. Oh, my dear Hope has just been slayed.

So my Good Man, go take your vitamins, take up running again, stop drinking galons of Coke, eat more healthily because ... I don't ever want to experience this or a different kind of busy without you by my side. I don't think I'm that strong.