This is Daily Dadspeak—daily reflections on becoming a dad, while still growing up myself. You can find the full mini-pod audio list here.
Yesterday, my wife got her COVID booster, and my two kids got the second dose of their under-12 vaccines.
Today, there’s a little vaccine hangover, but everyone’s mostly okay. Except my wife, who’s had a little fever and feels pretty wrecked. She gets this way after nearly any vaccine, COVID or otherwise, but a day later she’s back to 100%. As she will be tomorrow.
My kids reaction, on the other hand, appears to have much more to do with what’s going on around them than what’s happening in their bodies.
When the proposed activity was going to the gym to jump on trampolines this afternoon, they were feeling 110%. But when the task was getting everything ready for school tomorrow, they felt awful and couldn’t get off the couch.
I knew they were more tired than usual, but I also saw that they were clearly okay.
And I did allow them one break.
In the evening, I brought my wife and both kids dinner in our bed. We never eat in bed, ever. But today, sitting around the dinner table didn’t sound like fun. So eating in bed felt like an even bigger treat.
Having routines and enforcing them is important for discipline. But rules should be guidelines, not ironclad barriers never to be crossed. And every once in a while, especially after a non-routine event, you need a non-routine treat.
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