Parenting is a marathon, not a sprint. Bonus points if you ran the actual marathon this year. 

I recently heard someone say, «If you ever feel like you have too much control over your life, have a kid.» Kids have a way of shaking everything up. They demand attention and care all the time, and your life becomes reoriented around them. It’s not a casual thing in the least. It’s pretty full-on all the time. There isn’t really a break from it either. You wake up as a parent, and you go to sleep as a parent. You wake up in the middle of the night; that’s classic parent. So it’s no wonder that you might get a little burned out from time to time. There is so much to contend with every single day, and there is very little break from it all. This is why it’s important to have parent friends who understand what you’re going through. Parent friends are essential. They know what it’s like when your kid tells you at 8 pm that they have a science project they need a tri-fold for. And Target is about to close. And they had weeks to tell you, but they didn’t. Parent friends know what it’s like to constantly be asked for supplies from schools and teachers, as if you don’t spend enough money on your kids as it is. Parent friends know what it’s like to be stumped by their questions, unsure how to cut the huge, weird world down into digestible, non-scary tidbits for children. They know about all of this, and they want to talk about it with you.