As a mom of three, I have been thinking lately about the diversification of my skill set. And before I get into it, let me also say I believe the same applies to fathers and or anyone who self-identifies as a parent, regardless of their sexual orientation. A parent is a parent.

So what is it to Mom or Parent? Here’s the list of attributes I came up with while playing an exciting round of “Blanket, no Blanket” that lasted for 45 mins. At the same time, my two-year-old displayed an impressive bedtime protest:

Job description

• Amateur Physician: To monitor, treat, and observe minor health set-backs by operating as a human lie detector that can sense if this is “actual” sick or “spelling test” sick. This includes soft pharmacy skills in tracking and administering various youth medications and determining when a second opinion (actual medical professional) needs to assess the situation.
• Maker/Fine Artist: Of course, I can whip up a costume for the school play, of which I am hearing about now, for the first time, and debuts tomorrow….We can buy supplies while collecting all of the necessary items for the science fair, also due tomorrow…
• Educator: This is a broad attribute that includes all mathematical and literary functions…In order to really develop a competency in these skills, parents usually have to up their google game. Check out Google Scholar for those times when only an academic reference will do.
• Unpaid Uber Driver/Chauffeur: This role is often not limited to one’s own immediate half-lings. In fact, it usually grows to include the half-lings of others, as we all just try to navigate this complicated game of “who needs to be where when,” and how can we just help each other out.
• Professional Chef: Typically, a shared function and or dominated by one parent or the other and definitely in my case not limited to the role of mother. My husband chefs hard!
• Therapist: This is a more complicated role that involves having a high degree of self-awareness regarding the complications of raising children in the age of the internet, social media, and general access to information. It involves removing those personal biases that have one jumping quickly to “when I was your age” and recognizing that “their age now” and “was our age” are so completely and vastly different, we really just need to listen.

While I joke slightly at the function of “therapist” in the context of parenting, it is a fundamental and essential role. The pre-frontal cortex (the area of the brain responsible for cognitive control) of youth doesn’t fully develop until the early twenties – that means things that the adult brain interprets as minor inconveniences really do feel like earth-shattering events to the underdeveloped brain. And as adults with fully developed cognitive control (ahem…most of the time), we don’t understand.

Sometimes they have an adult attitude. It would do us all a world of good to remember the following. They are still children (even the double-digit ones) who need a heck of a lot of emotional support to get them through it. Take yourself back to high school, and imagine if every bad decision you made or stupid comment could be filmed and eternalized on the internet for the world to enjoy at your expense.

I haven’t even begun to scratch the surface of ways that parents have to stretch and develop new skills, all while managing a day job. So hats off to anyone that parents or helps out a parent in their life, because it really does take a village.