Sunday, August 12, 2012

What's Harder, Being a Pilot or a Parent?

I got the chance to have a sit down interview with my brother-in-law, who's been an Air Force pilot for 12 years.  The interview took place while 3 kids were sitting on him. 

Me: OK, what pilot skills come in handy for parenting?

BIL: You have to have situational awareness in the airplane and with parenting.  You have to be organized.  Communication within the plane and outside the plane as well.  You have to deal with pressure- it's a different kind of pressure.

The BIL with 4 of his 5 kids and one of mine
How is the pressure different?  
It's a higher stakes pressure.  You can't make a mistake in the plane.  With kids, it's more constant little things.

What's harder?  

What's harder, taking care of children or flying a plane?  (pause) Taking care of children is considerably harder.  Five children, at least.  It's a joke, having two children.  That's the easiest thing in the world.  (pause) You get a lot more training to fly an airplane.  Otherwise it would be much harder. You don't get a lot of training to be a parent.

Any more questions for my brother-in-law?  Let me know and I'll include them in a future interview.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

This was so absolutely awesome. Makes me feel a little better about the rough time I'm having with just two lol

The H Family said...

Line about two being a joke made me chuckle, since our days of two being hard seem so long ago. And nice to know that he realizes my day job is harder than his. :)