Kids have an incredible ability to activate your panic button and that fear of being exposed as a crap parent.
Back in the baby boom year of 2008, my wife and I had twins. A boy and a girl.
After a lengthy period in Unit 8 at Holles Street (where the care was incredible), we brought home two healthy amazing babies.
Fast forward three years, when the kids had outgrown most of the baby stuff – car seats, buggy, rockers, etc. - my wife decided to put it all up for sale. A statement of intent. Know when you’re lucky. Two kids are enough.
So, we found ourselves meeting people all over town in random places selling the baby stuff.
This one day, we met a lady in the car park of a GAA club to sell the double buggy. She was really friendly and seemed keen to buy it. The thing was, she had a really large, prominent mole on her face that was very hard to ignore.
As I was demonstrating the rocket science that is assembling and collapsing the buggy, my son kept interrupting…
“Daddy, daddy, daddy, daddy”.
“Just a second, I’m talking to the lady.”
“Daddy, daddy, daddy, daddy”.
“What son, what is it?”
“That woman’s got poo on her face!?”
“WHAT?”
“That woman’s got poo on her face!?”
“That woman’s got poo on her face!?”
“OK, OK, OK… STOP… stop talking now please!?”
He kept repeating it so, in my panic, I picked him up and placed him in the open boot of the car, saying “Look at this, isn’t this fun!?”
Thankfully, he was amused by the boot and stopped saying it.
Inside I was dying… publicly exposed as a “not in control” dad… rude comments from the toddler…
Dad’s solution? Put him in the car boot… WTF?
Kids have an incredible ability to activate your panic button and that fear of being exposed as a crap parent.
There’s a name for it - “imposter syndrome” – where you have that moment where you think “I’m really shit at my job and I am going to get found out.”
One of the most important jobs you can have in your life is being a parent.
The responsibility is enormous really.
If you over-think it, as I’m inclined to do, you can find yourself hit with a healthy dose of imposter syndrome.
Over time you realise that there will be lots of moments when you’re not in control.
When you make mistakes. But that’s OK.
“Try again, fail again, fail better” as Mr. Beckett said.
James Wynne lives and works in Dublin where he’s Group Head of Sponsorship for Packed.House - Ireland’s leading digital content, marketing and publishing business.