Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Parenting 101


On our recent trip to Disneyland, Tristan and I were walking through Disney's California Adventure. I was wearing my flip flops (really cute Teva flip flops--not $0.99 cheap flip flops that you buy at Walgreens so you don't pick up foot cooties in the shower flip flops), and my 7.5 year old twins had stepped on my feet numerous times. By the 800th time of telling them to "please watch where you are walking" I had kind of lost my patience. Not only that, but it hurt! After griping and grumbling about it for a moment we all started walking over towards a ride. Tristan was holding my hand, I just shook my head and said, "Ah the fun of parenting. In all honesty 75% of parenting is not that much fun. It's the other 25% that you live for." to which he replied, "So it's kind of like summers in Fairbanks, Alaska?"

Now those of you who have not had the opportunity to spend time in Fairbanks for all two of the seasons that they have annually probably don't know what I'm talking about. Fairbanks can get down to -80F or more in the winter months (which is basically October through May). The extreme cold is not typical for more than a week or two during the year but it can consistently stay at -40F for most of the winter--enough to freeze your eyeballs anyway. Summers can go to the other extreme and get up to 100F and are usually beautiful and sunny--all day and all night long. It is the land of the midnight sun, for sure. People who live in Fairbanks live for the summers, and with temps plummeting the way they have been known to it's no wonder why. They typically have 90 days of summer and the rest of the year is...well...winter. Tristan and I attended the University of Alaska Fairbanks together so we know firsthand how much fun those bitterly cold winter months can be. When Tristan likened parenting to living for summers in Fairbanks he was dead-on.

As a parent of young children you repeat yourself, are constantly throwing out discipline and advice, and you're lucky if anyone is ever listening to you because you sound like a broken record and kids just tune you out. However, it's that moment where they listen to you, or do something fabulous to surprise you that makes all those toe-crushing moments worth while. Kinda like enduring all those harsh winter months for a fabulous summer in Fairbanks, Alaska.

2 comments:

  1. "Fairbanks can get down to -80F or more in the winter months (which is basically October through May). The extreme cold is not typical for more than a week or two during the year but it can consistently stay at -40F for most of the winter--enough to freeze your eyeballs anyway."

    Lol are you kidding me???? lmfao -80? Born and raised in Fairbanks and haven't seen that. -40 to -60 for a couple of weeks during the winter yes. But -80 between the months of Oct and May? You have got to be kidding me.

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  2. The record low for Fairbanks is -66F, -80 is a bit of an exaggeration wouldn't you say? And the record high was 99, but its very uncommon for it to get that high in the 90's. It generally stays in the 80's in the summer at the highest. And the winters range from 10 above to -40 below throughout the winter, -40 being the coldest, and usually not lasting longer than a few weeks. You're misinforming people!

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