A consideration of the striking similarities between being a parent and taking care of someone on mushrooms
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During my wife’s pregnancy, she threw up every day, every single day, from when she was six weeks along until two weeks after our daughter was born. And, while we sat there, completely miserable—my wife on her knees and me nursing a sore arm from all that hair-holding—we wondered, “Why is the universe doing this to us? What could POSSIBLY be the benefit of making us go through this?” We were both at our wits’ end and were worried at how our rapidly-declining mental and physical states would affect our ability to parent our new child. But, as it turns out, the universe might’ve known what it was doing. It might have been preparing us for the realities of being a parent, which is one reason why this awesome meme about parenting by comedian Ron Funches really rings true to me.
Funches definitely knows what he’s talking about. There is a massive physical toll that comes from being a parent and that stress really does make you wonder if you’re fit to be the person calling the shots. In any other situation, you’d relinquish your command to someone else, ANYONE else, preferably someone who had a full night sleep and was thinking a little more clearly. But parents don’t get to do that. Parents can’t walk away because, even though they’re frazzled, exhausted, and hallucinating slightly, their kids still need them. Yes, your ability to make decisions are impaired, but, if left to their own devices, that baby IS going to try to eat that mousepad, so, your foggy, 10%-charged zombie brain still has to make dinner, pay the rent, and keep everyone alive. That is what being a parent is all about.
And, if you’ve never heard of comedian Ron Funches before, you should totally look him up. Here’s a great clip of him on John Oliver’s New York Stand-Up Show from earlier this year. This is where his quote originally comes from, a hilariously insightful bit where Funches, the parent of a ten-year-old son with autism, discusses how parenting really is like living in an altered state. He’s not wrong.
Meme originally found on FunkyJunk.com