Fatigue Fatigue

Microsoft Word thinks I just made a typo. Two of the same words in a row triggers that little squiggly red line under the second word. Nice to have unless you mean to do it. I do.

I’m tired of being tired. Fatigue is a very interesting word. Much more so than ‘tired.’ Tired summons thoughts of old, dated or out of style in addition to just plain tired. Fatigue at least has some style. It gives you the sense that you still have it in you, you’re just in need of rest.

In college I studied brand fatigue. There’s metal fatigue, structure fatigue, and battle fatigue. Also Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Adrenal Fatigue…there’s even fatigues you can wear. Last Saturday I realized I may have parenting fatigue.

I’ve found that I am breaking up my four daughters into two groups- the oldsters (13 and 11 years) and the youngsters (8 and 5 years old). When I think back at all we did with the oldsters it’s kind of amazing. Softball coaching, basketball, ski trips, tons of travel, dance lessons, brownies, American Girl Center in Chicago dressing Bitty Baby dolls, and so much more. As I stood on the softball field during hour 3 this Saturday I started wondering if I had it in me for the youngsters.

This is the 7th year I will coach 5 & 6 year old girls in softball. It used to be exhilarating. Then fun, slipping into enjoyable and last I checked, it moved into bearable. This year it is taking all I have to watch 5 year old girls catching grounders, looking like little kids bowling in reverse. Instead of leaving their hands and traveling towards the pins at .028 MPH, the ball leaves the bat at .028 MPH and travels slowly towards their bent over little stationary bodies with gloves wide open hoping against hope that the ball will change course 45 degrees and magically slide into their gloves. It doesn’t. It stops 8 feet from them and they stare at it perfectly still waiting for it to resume its travels while the batter runs towards the pitchers mound.

I want to be the on-fire dad I was 10 years ago. I want to be that for the youngsters. I want a beer and a nap.






Click here if you would like to subscribe to the DigitalRichDaily
E-mail update. Place 'subscribe' in the subject line.