Thanks for joining me for another edition of the SerenityThroughSweat blog. This week my wife got away for her much needed escape which left me home with both boys flying solo.
This was the first time I had been alone with both boys for an overnight, and with the knowledge that no reinforcements would be coming.
I decided to go to consult the operations manual to see what kind of helpful procedures would get me through. Much to my chagrin, there was no ops manual, (despite how many times I’ve told my wife that each child should have been birthed with one). In lieu of a manual, I decided to lean on my only other area of formal training, aviation, to help me through.
Thorough preflight: ensuring your craft is airworthy before heading up is a must. I tried to get my house in order, so to speak, before my wife left. This meant plans for activities, meal prepping dinners for El Duderino and I, and having bottles locked and loaded for Speedy, (especially in the case that he woke up in the wee hours of the morning)
Expanding your team: often times as pilots we can’t know all the information or have all of the expertise to complete the mission by ourselves. We need to rely on those around us and their expertise to arrive safely. Chic-Fil-A was a welcome part of the team and a much needed distraction for all of us. My wife also provided the idea of feeding Speedy in the car seat for a more mobile, one handed meal operation.
I’m very lucky that both boys were well behaved and (other than a quick one hour hiccup the first night) slept well. El Duderino played very well with Speedy, and was very understanding when his brother needed a little but more of my attention.
Workload Management: inevitably, some parts of the flight have significantly higher workload than others. Any work that can be done ahead of time during the low workload periods should be accomplished at those times. This meant washing and prepping bottles, rinsing diapers and doing other laundry, and even sneaking a workout and my mobility routine in was relegated to when one or both boys were sleeping.
Known Threats/Expectation Bias: before every flight we try to identify potential threats to the operation. Some are internal, some are external, and some are made of our own biases. Expectation Bias is the idea that you expect something to happen and are likely to react a certain way even if the situation doesn’t happen or presents itself differently. I figured that Speedy would give me a hard time eating from a bottle since it is not the norm for him. That was what I expected to happen and when we was fussy I reacted according to that bias. So it took me a few tries to figure out that his fussiness over the bottle was really about something else.
Debrief: after the plane has landed and another day’s mission is done it is common to debrief the ups and downs normally over a beverage or two. This is a chance to learn, fix, unwind, and tell stories and it is just as important as any of the stick and rudder work. The same is true as parents, at the end of the day what worked, what didn’t, what was crazy, and what made you laugh, (and a beverage or two never hurt)
All in all the boys and I had a wonderful few days flying solo. There was no blood, minimal tears, and lots of laughs. It was a humbling experience to see what my incredible wife does everytime I go out on a trip, and I’m glad that I could facilitate some time away for her. Even without the ops manual, we managed just fine, and I found out coordinating a 3 year old and a 7 months old’s schedule is trickier than any crosswind landing.
Thanks for joining me, stay safe and stay sweaty my friends.