Island Parent Fall 2023

said “look in bag in office,” so I stumbled
into the office, found an unusual bag that
had a note on it that said “school supplies
to reuse for Grade 7,” then crossreferenced
the school supply list and
found that, much to my pleasure, I need
to buy a grand total of two things, everything
else is still good from Grade 6. (Do
I bother buying the second eraser and
second fine-tip black felt marker or do I
just wing it, and allow myself a summer
of buying zero school supplies? I’d like to
say I just wing it but the Danny Tanner in
me didn’t not allow that: I bought them.
So what’s the point here? Leave yourself
notes that you’ll forget about then
read months later as if someone else
wrote them, leading you around the
house on a scavenger hunt of sorts? Well,
yeah, that was weird and awesome and
I felt pretty good about it. Be organized
and do stuff early? Always, but that’s
pretty lame and no one wants to hear it.
Something about back to school? No,
that was like a month ago by the time
you read this.
My point is, man, did I ever have a
secret little smile on my face the evening
this all went down. No one knew what I
was doing, probably no one cared, but it
was just...a win. Take ‘em where you can,
I figure. As a dad—as a parent—you can
go through long stretches without those
wins. Not that life is a miserable slog, but
just that it’s go, go, go, and it can be an
uphill battle sometimes.
But don’t dwell on that. I’ve been making
the mistake of zoning out on social
media a bit lately, doing the hatescroll,
just watching everyone be miserable and
hate everything. I’ll do it for 10 minutes,
snap out of it, and feel horribly embarrassed
for wasting my time. My only
takeaway is that there’s a lot of people
out there seeing the cup half empty.
And no matter how hard it gets, no
matter the struggles—personal, private,
public, major, or minor—that we
face as parents, I refuse to see the cup
as half empty. Even during the hardest
times—housing issues, medical diagnoses,
moments of defeat—I’ll stick that note
somewhere secret to remind myself that
there will be brighter days ahead (that
note is metaphorical, of course; even
Danny Tanner here has his limits).
I mean, there always are brighter days
ahead, more victories down the road.
And sometimes they’re just small victories.
Sometimes it’s just reusing two
orange duotangs from Grade 6 for Grade
7. But they were in great shape, man, and
it almost made me pump my first in the
air in victory.
And it’s not much, at all. By the time
this is in print, I’ll probably barely
remember any of this happening, too
caught up in whatever else is happening,
whatever parenting ups and downs have
me by the throat at that particular point
in time. But here and now, the orange
duotangs are a reminder that there are
always moments of victory to be found,
you sometimes just have to work a bit
to find them, and sometimes you have to
make them happen yourself.
Greg Pratt is the father of three
children and a local journalist and
editor. His writing has appeared
in, among other places, Today’s
Parent, Decibel and Douglas. He
is @gregprattwriter on Twitter.
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NOMINEE
2023
FA M I LY
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FAVO U R I T E S
IslandParent.ca
Fall 2023 17