This past weekend my son went to his first camp with our church youth group.  So, in addition to the experience of loading him onto a bus and waving goodbye, I had the opportunity to rest a little and get some much-needed work done around the house.

He came back on Sunday evening and I could not have been more excited to see him.  I miss him when he is gone, even when it affords me the opportunity to rest.

Photo Credit: Sue90ca ☀☀☀ Keep The Sun Coming ☀☀☀ via Compfight cc

Not long after I put him to bed, I sat down to catch up on some headlines and one teaser on the Drudge Report caught my eye: “Modern dads ‘burning out’…”.  I do not have my Strunk and White handy, so I apologize for any improper punctuation.

The first sentence of the article indicated modern dads experience as much burnout as moms.  The article went on to make broad statements about working parents – presumably married – experiencing high levels of stress related to juggling work and home responsibilities.

No where in the article did single parents receive explicit attention.

I immediately thought of my years as a single dad.

And I thought of you and the other readers who have extraordinary parental responsibility…often with no consistent support from a spouse or even an ex.

Do we experience burnout?

We certainly can feel exhausted, stressed, frustrated, and even overwhelmed, but I suspect we power through those feelings and get up every day and do it all over again.

If you do feel burnout, I would commend to you you last week’s post and a few others I have written to give some encouragement and ideas to combat burnout.

5 Steps To Build A Reliable Team For Help When You Need It

Finding Balance As A Single Dad

Thanks for being a dad and all it entails.

When have you experienced burnout as a parent?