Author: HMP

Alright dads turn…..

So here I am 4 o’clock in the morning. Mom just got to work, I’m laying in bed with the child who refuses to stay asleep in his bed. I can’t sleep… thinking if things to pack tomorrow morning, what are our plans for this weekend, what the heck I have to do tomorrow when I get in to work.  Sometimes being a parent is tiring… correction, being a parent is tiring, I work about 12 hours 5 days a week I get about 3-5 hours of sleep when my wife works. But it’s all for this little thing laying next to me, who in the time I’ve typed this out has gone from laying next to me like a regular person to side ways with his feet on my chest, to now “upside down” having me fight with his feet continually being thrown on my face, while he stays asleep!  No matter what though I’ll always love him. You do crazy things as a parent, but one thing that I think should always be true, the craziness is always worth it when it’s for that little person or people you brought into this world… now I’m going to try to get some sleep and hopefully survive to my next day off.  But I guess that’s the life of a Hot Mess Parent #hotmessparent #tireddaddy #sleepingkid #lovemyson #craziness #lackofsleep #allforlove #hotmessdad

So… yesterday we finally tried out couponing. And honestly I think we ended it more confused than saving. We still aren’t sure if we saved more than we spent but I mean we’re happy with what we got. 

We decided to go to Target and test this couponing thing out. We chose Target because we have a red card which saves 5% everytime we use it. We also use the Target cartwheel app so we figured it would save us more money. 

These are the coupons we figured we try out. 5 coupons for baby stuff, 4 coupons for cleaning supplies, and 3 for personal care. Obviously with baby #2 on the way, all the diapers and wipes we bought are going straight to that child. 

Here’s a picture of everything we bought. Obviously we bought some things that we didn’t have coupons for, but majority of the haul was strictly using coupons. 

I honestly have to applaud all those people out there who coupon on a daily basis. This shit is hard. You’re constantly having to read the coupon to see how much you can buy, stack on top, and max transactions a day. Then some of them even go on savings app such as IBotta and Checkout 51 to upload receipts and get more money back. 

I think in total we saved about $33; which isn’t bad considering this is our first time actually attempting to coupon. Would we do it again? Probably but only if we can find someone/a group of people who can show us the ropes. If you’re someone who likes to just grab and go, couponing isn’t for you. 

Ok so I’m here to bring in another point of view not so often seen. Hot Mess dads…. I’m laying on my floor at 2:30 in the morning, my son will most likely be up in about 5 hours, and yet here I am composing this post. 

I consider myself a hotmess parent. I think most dads are, but since you know, we’re guys it’s not the same. Trust me it’s the same. Just because dads don’t tend to be the primary caregiver doesn’t mean we get to slack off and shouldn’t be held to the same standards as moms. 

I’m a sous chef. My job is to organize and run a kitchen, do orders, keep track of my cooks, and make dishes that would “entice the masses”. But some days I can’t even figure out what the heck I’m eating for lunch, let alone for my kid. My knife bag is more organized than my kids diaper bag. I’m pretty sure coming up with a brand new sushi roll is easier than figuring out what I’m going to buy at the grocery store to feed my family. 

I’m hoping that with this blog I can maybe help some dads out there, or maybe help some moms see from a dad point of view. I’m one of those dads who does things for my wife not because it makes me a good husband but because that’s what I’m supposed to do. We are a team, there’s no good mom or good dad, we’re parents. 

As I sit on my couch, writing this post at 10:38pm, I look around my living room and think “damn I really should clean instead of writing this”. But then again, I wouldn’t consider myself to be a hot mess parent if I did stop to clean.

So what exactly is a hot mess parent and what makes me qualified to write about this? Well it’s simply
Hot Mess Parent – a person, specifically a parent, who seems completely unorganized, unkempt and out of control but still manages to pull off parenting tasks each day. But at the same time, still keeps a sense of allure and attractiveness about them.
Why I’m qualified – I’ve been parenting even before I had my own children. There’s a 14 year age gap between myself and my twin siblings. So growing up, I was like a 3rd parent. But now that I have an almost 2 year old and another due in June, I’m definitely fitting that “hot mess” stereotype more days than not. I also changed it from hot mess mom to hot mess parent because let’s be realistic, dad’s can be hot messes too! It’s just more socially acceptable for dad’s not to have their shit together than it is for mom’s.

Some signs that you might be a hot mess parent include the following:
Your kids watch more TV than they do other activities
Your house is never fully clean (pile of unfolded laundry on a chair, sink full of dirty dishes, etc.)
You don’t give your kids balanced meals every single time they eat
You forget at least one thing every time you leave the house and don’t remember until you reach your destination.

I wanted to write this blog because I know I fuck up every single day when it comes to parenting. But I still manage to keep my child alive and happy and well fed; that’s the important shit. Now to make a clarification, when I originally brainstormed this idea I thought of doing this by myself. It didn’t hit me until a month later that I should probably include my husband/baby daddy in this because we’re in the same situation. So even though I, the wife/baby momma is writing this specific one; this is gonna be a tag team blog that we take on. M