Solo Parental Leave Diaries: Making Peace and Being Grateful
Like many parents this past week, I’ve been watching in envy as other players scream up the levels in World of Warcraft: Forever. I began playing WoW in 2004 with three school friends, all of whom are still childless. As I jot this down, one child is in the bath, one is napping, and my friends are in-game, their sleep deprivation self-imposed.
I’ve made a kind of peace with this—I think you have to as a parent to avoid resentment. In some ways, I found the transition from zero to one much harder in this respect. Most of that free time disappeared with the first child; the second arrived in a life that had already been rearranged.
That peace leaves more room for gratitude for the time I do get to play. In my first entry, I wrote about nap ambitions. Well, on the day WoW: Forever came out, I was blessed with a two-hour nap, and you’d better believe Stabzo McStabface spent it wreaking havoc on the undead denizens of Tirisfal Glades.