This past week was my first week back at work in a long time. I honestly was dreading going back because things still seemed so chaotic with three kiddos and a dog to take care of. My wife has been getting better sleep at night recently, but it still isn’t enough to have her well rested all day. I didn’t know how it was all going to come together.

Luckily, the first week back at work was not as hectic as it could be. I was catching up on a lot of things that happened and getting thrown into the fire on some other things. Scheduling-wise, I was also able to do drop offs and pickups for daycare and I’m glad I could still squeeze that in to help out. During the times when I couldn’t make drop offs or pickups, I was with the baby and trying to calm him down during meetings. There were a few close calls, but I was able to distract him enough to calm him down or to end a meeting right after I heard cries from him after a nap.

Before I had kids, I could somewhat understand how it would be difficult to work while having kids. After having kids (and even just after the first kid), I could understand exactly how it is difficult to work while having kids. The more kids I had, the more difficult things got. It’s one of those things where if you don’t go through it yourself, you can’t exactly know about the sleepless nights, unpredictable schedule, the immense amount of patience required after a long and trying day at work to show up well for what is more important than work - your kids. It’s probably the most difficult thing I’ve done because there are no days off and no holidays from them (and sometimes that’s by choice because I love spending time with them, especially when they are getting along and not fighting!). I have a few people on the team that are having their first baby and a few friends recently going through the journey. It will truly turn everyone’s world upside down and then I think they will look at working parents much differently, similar to how I did. They will be enlightened…and in the best way possible!