Partying Prepares You for Parenthood
As I look back on things I did before becoming a parent and ask: what did I do that helped me not found in books or from others? An unlikely answer:
Partying
All the partying I did, such as: traveling to events and hosting events helped me because of:
- logistics
- operations
- solving in the moment
All of these come up traveling and hosting parties all the time. When you’re a parent, you never know what will happen no matter how well planned.
Logistics
One rule I learned:
When leaving, pack out cleanly - everything will show up at the destination.
Before learning that rule, I would not pack cleanly, or not remember packing something - unpack everything and lose time somewhere else.
With this rule, I am confident enough in packing out my stuff as well as my families’ stuff and not lose anything.
When a family member needs something on our way, I do have a problem, eventually - it all works out.
Operations
Planning a trip, just like traveling to an event, has numerous moving parts that can change at any moment.
Sticking to a plan and handling abrupt changes is part of the game as a parent, a big difference: changes can happen internally too!
This adds another level of operational complexity - all the experience from previous disasters and mitigations come into play smoothly.
MacGuyver Skills
Similar to operation disasters - all the skills you have from solving in the moment, aka MacGuyver Skills, help. The calm structured problem solving in a new environment for an unexpected problem that suddenly appear pays off is spades when you’re a parent.
Conclusion
These are just a small number of skills I cultivated while partying that are helping me be a parent that I never saw listed anywhere else in parenting resources I’ve seen.
OR - could this be like my wife frequently says for anything I don’t know:
This is Common Sense!
😅