Amy and I have a terrible work-life balance.<\/p>\n
We are both working nearly full-time right now, and that leaves little margin for the \u201cextras.\u201d<\/p>\n
A few weeks ago, feeling the load from a busy week, and Amy swamped with all her responsibilities, we both found ourselves at the front reception at the same time.<\/p>\n
Ironically, the phone rang, and it was the elementary campus asking to speak to one of us. We caught each other\u2019s eye (not in the romantic way) but in the \u201cwhat now?<\/em>!\u201d kind of look that parents give when they get a call from the school.<\/strong><\/span> Amy had to run to a meeting, so I took the phone call.<\/p>\n \u201cLevi will need to go to the hospital for stitches!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Injuries are all too familiar for the Cumiskeys. Hospitals, bumps, and bruises come with the job of parenting four boys.<\/p>\n But not this week, we are too busy this week, there\u2019s no time <\/em>for this.<\/p>\n Yet here I was, picking up Levi with a pretty good gash on his head from a toe-to-toe battle with a fence post. There was definitely a need for a hospital visit (which if you\u2019ve been to emergency lately, is a tough decision to make!).<\/p>\n With a blubbering mess of a kid, scared for his impending stitches, crying on my shoulder in the waiting area, I caught myself preoccupied with thoughts of trying to reschedule meetings, adjust extracurriculars, coordinate with Amy on pick-ups and drop-offs, burdened with this unexpected trip to the emergency room.<\/p>\n \u201cLevi, Levi, Levi,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0called the triage nurse.<\/p>\n It took THREE Levi\u2019s to get me out of my own head.<\/span><\/strong> \u201cDad, it\u2019s our turn!\u201d <\/em>Sad little eyes looked up with a fear that comes with the impending procedure.<\/p>\n It became apparent that, it this moment, what my boy needed most was dad. Not the principal dad, not sports dad, not taxi dad, just dad. A confidence, reassurance, encouraging dad that would be fully present.<\/p>\n Mother Teresa once said, \u201cif you want to change the world, go home and love your family<\/em>.\u201d This is good wisdom.<\/p>\n It dawned on me that sometimes we do a lot of good for our kids\u2014playdates, sports teams, musicals, etc. but sometimes, what they really need, is for us is to be fully present.<\/p>\n Turns out, no stitches were needed; we just glued his head back together!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Amy and I have a terrible work-life balance. We are both working nearly full-time right now, and that leaves little margin for the \u201cextras.\u201d What Now?! A few weeks ago, feeling the load from a busy week, and Amy swamped with all her responsibilities, we both found ourselves at the front reception at the same […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":155,"featured_media":7716,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,14],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-7693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle-school","category-parents"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/155"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7693\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7693"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=7693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Just Dad<\/h2>\n