The rewards outweigh the grief......well i like to remind myself that at times....
2.5 years ago i became a "parent/father" to two girls when i met my partner and she has two children from prior marriage...
"my two" did not come with an instruction manual...and it was a steep learning curve for me...and still is...
they live with us 24/7...their Dad lives five minutes away and has seen them four times this year...
they are now Miss 6 and Miss 11.....
Miss 6..
does she have regular meltdowns..absolutely..
does she give us grief and attitude...absolutely...
but seeing her ride her bike without training wheels for the first time last week after we persued with her for about a year so she could learn how to is priceless...
having her hang with me and tinker with bikes on sunday morning...cause thats what the cool people do is pretty awesome...
seeing her progress with her swimming lessons...and realise shes not going to drown if she lets go of the wall...that was priceless...
Miss 11 going on 18...
sure she is giving grief lately being a teenage attitude kicking in...
but she is one awesome kid, we have done a few adventure races together and often hang doing cool stuff....
sure her ADHD makes it hard in life at times with her learning at school etc but we persevere...
sure all kids are hard work....and i get it wrong many times...
but at the end of the day...there are the rewards....
heres a clip of Miss 11 singing about a year ago...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aXvqItHfE8
as your child gets older...the bond will grown and the great times will increase....stick with it dude....