you can’t do it all

All smiles today!

I am a perfectionist. I hold everyone (husband, friends, myself) and everything (house, dog, work) to the highest of standards and buckle when things don’t turn out as envisioned. Thus parenting has been true misery.

The idea for this post came at ten o’clock last night when Clay was screaming his head off. Our baby is usually drifting into dreamland at this time and is rarely unhappy – shots, late lunches, and the presence of an allergy are his only three grievances in life. But yesterday we decided to try a different formula (with one of his smaller food intolerances) just to see if we might get away with a slightly cheaper alternative. By the evening our poor child had proven we couldn’t, and we found ourselves consoling a crying two-month old with tummy problems instead of watching Breaking Bad.

This parenting thing is hard. Sometimes we make mistakes, cut a few corners. And then (more difficult than anything I’ve had to do), we just have to let it go. Move on to the next success – or slipup. After all, what kind of stories will he have if everything in his youth is perfect? What tales to tell Oprah?

And, more likely than not, the next morning he’ll be happily cooing in his crib, the previous night’s calamity completely forgotten.

Note From Scott: He was crying last night? Really? Man, that Breaking Bad finale was thoroughly engrossing.