Learning from Colin

I had Colin solo from Thursday until Sunday. I used to be “scared” of these weekends as solo parenting meant double the work and really no time to myself. There were times in the past where I would basically struggle into Sunday when Sophia got back and need a day or two to recover.

Nowadays, I look forward to these weekends. Part of that is that Colin is a bit older, and part of it is that I’m now a veteran parent who doesn’t stress as much anymore and knows the flow. These weekends are now a lot of fun and I look forward to them.

I know ahead of time that my focus is going to be solely on Colin so my schedule is cleared and I can be 100% present with him. That clarity in my head does wonders for me as I can just simply focus on the most important thing which is being the best Dad possible. Work, friends, etc. suddenly don’t matter as much in that moment. I go to bed early knowing that I have a full day of parenting the next day so I feel refreshed and ready to go.

These weekends are a magical time for me especially at this age. It’s been amazing learning from Colin. There’s so many simple learnings. Yesterday, I took Colin to grab a slice of pizza for lunch and he asked to walk home. It took much longer than pushing him in a stroller, but he took so much pleasure in just walking and seeing things.

He stopped to look at the beautiful flowers. He looked at the building made out of bricks and equated them to his legos and said “wow cool”. He even found pleasure in looking down at the Gowanus Canal… as ugly as that water looks. For me, I had nowhere to be or anything to do and I remembered that life is about the journey not the destination.

There was no need to rush home and going the slow way to just enjoy the simple things with Colin turned out to be one of my favorite lessons that I’ve learned from him.