Parenting can sometimes just be about taking it one week at a time

By Tyler Maher

Jul 6, 2021

“It really was a game of two halves out there tonight.”

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It's a line you are very likely to hear if you tune in to a post-match press conference on the weekend or walk by an interview outside of the club rooms after a local sporting match.

The need to immediately debrief after a game is one ingrained in the sporting psyche of the country, whether it be for internal growth or external curiosity.

So for me - someone who has lived and breathed sport in all of its iterations since before I could string a sentence together - a press conference is a perfect way to analyse what went wrong last week when I took sole charge of both of my daughters for the first significant time.

For those of you who are new to what I am now affectionately calling my ‘Dad Blog’, my partner Grace and I have two daughters, Eden and Bonnie, who are three years and seven weeks old respectively.

PARENTING PRESS CONFERENCE

Grace: "Grace Holland, Mum News Daily. Set the scene for us, how did last night's game play out from your perspective?”

Tyler: "Well we started out really strongly in my eyes. We spoke in the lead-up to the game about wanting to really put in the work early and then we'd be able to reap the rewards. That new episode of Loki was keyed up ready to go and the hype from the team was where I wanted it to be I thought.”

Grace: "So where did it all go wrong?”

Tyler: "I'm putting it down to a coaching mistake, it's really on my shoulders here. The drop off of you at your dinner reservation went so well that I thought the tactical battle was over. I had the toddler and the baby asleep by 6.30 pm and we looked set for a big win.”

Grace: "I feel like you're avoiding the question here. What happened next?”

Tyler: "While it was true that the toddler had fallen asleep in the car on the way back home and transferred well, she did this before eating dinner. That should have been a real red flag.”

Grace: "Is that where the momentum started to shift?”

Tyler: "Not at all. She actually slept through until you returned home, and apart from the baby being a bit restless she was a dream to look after as well.”

Grace: "Then how did you still lose by such a huge margin?”

Tyler: "Somewhere along the way I got confused. What I thought was the full-time whistle when you arrived home was actually only the half-time siren. The toddler charged out of bed at midnight, hyped up from a five-hour nap and ready to eat everything in the fridge. Then the baby - who I also didn't feed because she wasn't crying - decided to feed for four hours straight. As you well know, the entire household was up until well past 3 am after that. It was a mess.”

Grace: "Where to from here?”

Tyler: "Well, I know I've got the full support of the board. We'll regroup, reassess and come back stronger for it next time out. We've just got to control what we can control.”