Musings - Parenting is Hard

So as it turns out parenting is hard.  This isn't any sort of revelation its been known for some time and its trueness passed down from one generation to the next for a millennia.  

This is not specifically what I want to talk about today.  But what I do want to talk about is how much harder parenting becomes when you are surrounded by the unfamiliar.  And I mean surrounded, on all sides sort of like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid by the Bolivian army in their final showdown.  But unlike Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid I'm not going out in a fiery hail of cheap bullets. 

So getting your kids all set and ready to go anywhere hasn't changed that is still the same.  The same arduous ordeal where when you ask them to move more quickly they somehow interpret that to mean move more slowly.  You finally get out the door and think to yourself I'm finally on my way, but guess what you really have no idea where you are going or how to get there.  I used to jump in the car, back out of the driveway and moments later be at my destination whether it was school for the girls or any of the plethora of appointments. family faces daily.  Now I step out the door and wonder where the hell am I going, how am I going to get there and how much of a hassle will it be.  Of course we're relegated to using transit which trust me is way easier then driving on Hong Kong island for any newcomer.  So if we moved slowly before now try getting a 4 year old to complete the 8 minute (15 minutes most days and I'll let you guess why its almost twice as long) walk to the MTR (local metro).  All of a sudden its all, I'm tired first thing in the morning or my legs hurt or can you carry me.  Have you ever tried asking for directions or tried using google maps while balancing said 4 year old on your shoulders.  I'm getting quite good t it. And all that isn't so bad because we a rarely in a hurry and so moving at a snails pace is mostly OK.  it gets really difficult when all this is going on and you have to concentrate real hard so you don't end up carrying said 4 year old on your shoulders for 10 minutes in the wrong direction, because guess what, you'll have to carry her back.  It wasn't too long ago we met Jenn for lunch and then went looking for the Vietnamese embassy, as we had planned a long weekend in Da Nang.  Well the constant whining got to me that day and yes I went the wrong way not once but twice, loss of concentration.  And then when I was finally in the right area I couldn't find the building entrance.  That day my health app on the phone told me I had walked over 17,000 steps.  Do you realize me daily average is anywhere from 10,000 to 12,000 steps since I moved here.  I've lost 15 pounds this month without meaning to, I'm wasting away to nothing.  Not really still lots to go.

As we spend more and more days here though it gets easier and easier, we go to some of the same places, like Amélie's school and that's a little more like it used to be; get out the door and go, a little more mindless.  And quite honestly I think we need that from time to time, it can be very stressful to always be alert and attentive.