Mom Blog Monday: Overcomparenting

(Unearthed this gem from blogger draft...)

It's common for parents to feel guilty when they have to spend time away from their child for various reasons like:

• Travel
• Work obligations
• A marital separation

It's normal for parents to consciously or unconsciously compensate for their absence by guilt-purchasing dumb things their kids don't need.

They buy them candy and dolls and karate lessons and DVDs, and let them stay up past their bedtime all to appease that nagging voice that says, "You are an abandoner..."

I am experiencing a much sadder, more depressing version of this.

I'm about to leave my favorite tiny baby creature for three months. I feel like I lost my mind when I made that decision.

Today I strapped that nugget into her puppy bjorn, biked her to work and worked for 13 hours.

At the end of the day I was met with equal amounts of the following:

a) celebratory joy over finishing my web-copy project

b) disgust over the idea of biking home

The solution was simple: I would bike to the liquor store and we'd both get a treat; I'd get an IPA and Edie would get 15 minutes of pure, unadulterated carpet time. This little dude loves carpet, man; I mean she just really, really loves it!

So if I've ever wronged you and wanted to make up for it by getting you a gift, or if you're anticipating a souvenir from a trip I took, just keep in mind that I ditched my dog for three months and I said I was sorry by bringing her to a gross liquor store and letting her play on the carpet for ten minutes longer than the five minutes it took me to select my six pack. 

No, you definitely heard me right; I just stood there and watched my dog revel in sheer carpet ecstasy on 45-year-old berber carpet.