War and peace – The abridged version
A little bit about the blog, why I’ve decided to start writing, and other context.
I’m G.B, a dad of two boys, husband to a wonderful wife, master procrastinator and 24/7 tech support for my extended family.
The name for the blog is a play on the film ‘A fistful of dollars’ which I chose in part because I love westerns, and in part because I thought it was a funny play on the name our eldest Gilbert gives to his dummies. Simple minds, and all that.
Anonymity
From the outset, discussing the idea of a what is to be primarily a family stories blog with my wife felt utterly strange. We’re both intensely private people, we scarcely use social media, don’t have active social groups, or really any desire to be seen more than we already are.
But what we do have are stories worth sharing, and worth preserving. For the purposes of protecting our privacy, I will be using pseudonyms in reference to both me and my family. My wife E.M, our firstborn son Gilbert & our very new addition Pip will hopefully provide interesting characters in the stories i’ll be telling going forward.
Parenthood, and the loss of identity
When you’ve never experienced being a parent, you can never truly prepare yourself for the seismic shift in priorities, mentality and lifestyle you’re about to embark on. Going from being able to do what you wish, when you wish, to having every waking (and non-waking, if you’re lucky) hour being dictated by a tiny lump of love and endless demands is really, really hard.
There is a level of acceptance needed, and for me, this has been the hardest hurdle to overcome. I can deal with mountains of nappies, projectile vomit, tantrums and sometimes even lack of sleep. But getting my head around having what amounts to virtually zero alone time and therefore time to process thoughts is in part what has led me to start this blog.
I’ll be sharing whatever experience or advice I can muster on this topic in due course. But it does get better, and you will find ways to reclaim some head space, adjusting to new realities is never easy.
Thank you for taking the time to read my mental stew, and I hope you enjoy your stay on my little corner of ‘tinternet.
