I wasn’t born to be a solo parent. Anthony is an extremely useful second parent, and when he’s out of town, I struggle. I especially have a hard time getting the dog out for walks. The kids refuse to come outside with me in these frigid temperatures, but then when I’ve walked out the door they’re filled with intolerable dread over being in the house alone. So Nick does things like run out of the house bawling, “mommy mommy where are you??” and Jesse chases him down the driveway screaming “Nick come back, COME BAAAACK!!!” It echoes through the entire neighborhood like rolling thunder, drivers-by observe my half-naked, shoe-less kids wandering the front yard at sub-zero wind chills, the dog’s too distracted to take care of business, and then she waits until I leave and shits in the basement.

To avoid this horrible spiral in the mornings, I let the kids turn to electronics while I walk the dog. They never took to rubber binkies as babies, but WOW the iPad minis do the trick. It’s a fun way to start the day, until I tell them to put the iPads away and get going. It’s all downhill from there, but at least my neighbors don’t have to witness as much of our insanity.

The rest of today and 3 more days to go before Anthony returns. Somebody help me not hurt my kids until then.