Dad admits he can't hack it over summer break in viral post originally appeared on goodmorningamerica.com
Even for the most patient parent, summer vacation can be a trying time.
Mike Julianelle, the dad behind the popular blog and social media platforms known as "Dad and Buried," posted to his Instagram that it took exactly 1.5 days for him to lose it.
"I don’t want to be a stay-at-home parent," he captioned his post. "I don’t want to have to find ways to fill my kids’ days all summer. I don’t want to plan, I don’t want to pack stuff, I don’t want to herd them places, I don’t want to go places. I don’t have the temperament, I don’t have the patience, I don’t have the interest. I also don’t have a choice."
Julianelle told "Good Morning America" he and his wife have each taken time as the stay-at-home parent and right now, it's his turn to stay home with their two kids, 8 and 3, in Brooklyn, New York. But with freelance writing, his blog and active social media accounts, he's still under some degree of work stress.
On the day, he "lost it" he told "GMA" his wife was calling from work. He was dealing with the kids and simultaneously trying to get some work done. He asked his 8-year-old to go upstairs so he could talk to his wife and "though he always wants to be upstairs" his son wouldn't go.
"I lost it," Julianelle said. "I started yelling. My wife was frustrated because not only was I not listening to her, she could hear me yelling at our kid. Then he was yelling and my three-year-old started yelling."
(More: 3 easy ways to get your kids up and off the couch this summer)
The thought that went through his head, he told "GMA" was "How am I going to survive?"
It's a common, if not commonly shared, thought of stay-at-home moms everywhere when it comes to summer vacation. Julianelle thinks one of the reasons there's so much engagement with his post is not only because of it's honesty, but because it's coming from a dad.
"We're supposed to be 'the fun parent.'" he said.
"There's a lot of sentimentality about parenting," Andrew Burmon, Editor-in-Chef of Fatherly, told "GMA." "That's probably for the best, but it often obscures the fact that parenting is work. Being honest about the emotional and economic challenges of raising kids in America right now is an act of bravery and selflessness.
"There needs to be a broader and more honest discussion of parents' experiences so that the cultural, professional, and even personal expectations of parents can evolve to be more reasonable."
Fun parent or not, filling up the hours and days is an overwhelming task for most. But Julianelle writes that he realizes it's his responsibility to do so.
"No, we might not be able to send them to camp or take them on fancy trips, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t things to do. And it’s on me to do them. More than that, it’s on me to do them with a smile on my face. Or at least without constantly yelling at them."
The good news is the summer is still young and there's plenty of time to get back on track.
Julianelle notes that "there’s nowhere to go but up."