The Secret to Surviving Parenthood

Going through the undergrad/medical school/residency/fellowship grind took us pretty far from home.

Louisville to Nashville
Nashville to Indianapolis
Indianapolis to Augusta
Augusta to Nashville
Nashville to Augusta

We were lucky to know at least a handful of people in most of our locations, if only by meeting them first online. Once we had our first child in Indy, the moving process changed. Suddenly we didn’t feel “settled” into our location until we had successfully established a network of babysitters for the kids.

Our families are in Louisville, Kentucky and Greensboro, Georgia, so although a couple of our homes were within a few hours drive from family, we always had issues arise where having a local sitter was imperative to survival. Some of the gems…

labor/delivery
kidney stones
9 fillings/1 crown/1 root canal (same appointment…don’t ask)

You know. The usual activities where you don’t really don’t want a toddler bouncing on your lap (like one of my OB visits…) Do your best to stop coveting this glamorous lifestyle.

*Zella doing what she does best: problem solving.*

And now that Zella has become…errr…loud, we use sitters for violin and cello concerts, dance recitals, and school events.

Essentially what I am saying is that we could not do what we do without these dedicated sitters. They are how we survive parenting five kids. They are why we don’t spend our days completely burned out parenting a child with ADNP syndrome. They are why we even have the option of random date nights.

Babysitters – we salute you.