Fake It

Fake It Till You Make It:
A thought provoking short story

I wrote this short story remembering all the seemingly perfect families I've met in my life.
They show a picture perfect family life but hide the struggles, heartache, compromises, and sacrifices they made to get there.

People are not perfect and we all come with a baggage. We can live a happy life or a create a chaotic life. It all depends on the choices we make.

A short story:
Nancy arrives home from a long day at work. She kicks off her high heels and walks into the kitchen. Bruce lights the candles on the dinner table and embraces her in a warm hug. Her two girls, ages five and six, are running from the playroom to greet her. Their handsome seventeen-year-old boy looks up from his computer and smiles at her.
A beautiful picture, isn’t it? The man plays the role of the happy househusband and the wife is the breadwinner. Nothing is wrong with that. But, let’s just see how they got to this ideal picture of a happy home.

Available on many sites in eBook:

ebook

A short excerpt

Finally, Bruce could go home, but he couldn’t sleep. The picture of his daughter’s birth was haunting him. He wished he’d never had to see it, but it was done. He had to learn to deal with it. He had a daughter, a flesh and blood human being, and he couldn’t comprehend the thought that he was a father.

“What am I gonna do?” he mumbled. “My comfortable life seems to be over. What if she’s expecting me to change diapers and feed the baby? Moreover, what if she wants to stay home and is expecting me to be the breadwinner?”

He sat up in, his bed heart racing. “I hate working. I can’t stand it when I must be there on time and do what others tell me to do every minute. She makes good money, she should work, and I could be the stay at home dad. But then I’d have to deal with this screaming and pooping little monster.”

He got out of bed and stumbled towards the bathroom. After he splashed cold water on his face his racing mind calmed down enough so he could weigh his options. “Which one is better? Go to a job that I hate eight hours a day, or stay home and do what I want all day? How bad can it be? If I feed the kid and keep her clean, she will sleep most of the time and I could do whatever I want. Now, talking her into going back to work right away could be a challenging job. It must look like it was her idea and not mine.”

After a few hours restless sleep, he spent the better part of the day thinking when he had a few minutes between answering the congratulatory phone calls and getting the nursery ready. He washed and pressed the tiny baby clothes and organized the changing table. Doing the small chores around the house calmed him, and he realized that the activity made him happy. He read the ‘Welcome your brand-new baby’ book again and realized that he forgot to pick up a thermometer.