Fall updates as a temporary solo dad - iameven.com
How I’m dealing with being alone with the kids, the games I’ve played, and TV shows I’ve watched recently
Temporary single father
Ingvild got a temporary position in northern Norway and I am in Stavanger with my job and the kids. In the beginning of October she took the car and drove through Sweden up to Målselv where she is living in an apartment in my fathers new house. She has a one hour commute to her job in Balsfjord so she gets a lot of practice driving on snowy and icy roads through the dark. In addition to job experience of course. She’ll be there until Easter. Luckily we get to meet up once a month at least. Her coming here for some weekends, us going up there to celebrate Christmas, and the rest we haven’t figured out yet.
I am very much getting into a routine focused around the daily schedule of Mats. And I even find some time for Sam in between, but mostly after getting Mats to bed. I’m doing a fairly good job if I get to say so myself. I keep the kids alive. I work 80% with shorter days to make the logistics easier for me. I manage to keep the apartment in a somewhat tidy if not at all times clean state. And I exercise almost daily. I’ve signed up for my next half marathon in January to keep myself motivated to get out and run. I also get a couple of hours every evening for whatever, like playing video games or watching some TV shows.
Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley
This is a short and sweet game. I’ve been reading Tales from Moominvalley for Mats in the evenings before bedtime. I think he might still be too young to pay attention to the stories, but I enjoy reading for him, and we establish reading before bedtime as a routine for when he gets older. So it was quite fun to recognize some of the stories and characters in this game. It starts with The Spring Tune and characters from the other short stories turn up through the game. It reminds me a bit of A Short Hike in style and general feeling. The controls are a bit frustrating at times, but the game is never really hard, so I can accept that.
Hollow Knight
The news about Hollow Knight: Silksong dropped sometime after summer, which made me remember giving up on Hollow Knight because it was too hard. At the time I really couldn’t be bothered to learn it. I decided to give it another chance now and it is unsurprisingly great. The controls are so good when you get used to the timing. Every challenge goes from being incomprehensible to “oh, that’s how you’re supposed to do that” after a couple of tries. The world is interconnected in a lot of different ways and there might be several ways to make progress. The mood and music is magical. The boss fights are interesting. The power ups are paced in a good way even if you discover them in different order at different times. It is still really hard. I’ve completed 85% of the game and it is apparently possible to complete it to a logical 112%. I’m not going to do that, but I might get Silksong now, or in a couple of years.
Ølhunden Berit
This is a Norwegian show about an incel named Tom who threatens a celebrity named Live online with rape and then gets exposed for it, and his neighbour Audun who struggles with being a supportive husband and dad while suppressing his “masculinity”. Tom has to go into hiding as a woman because he can’t show himself publicly and he has access to clothes and wigs from his mothers store. He creates the persona Berit, makes some new friends, experience some new lows, and then gets into a position where she helps rape victims. Live, who regrets exposing Tom after seeing what happens to him, tries to get in touch and make amends with him while also starting a TV show about toxic masculinity. And Audun gets into a dark hole. It’s a really good but dark show.
Ingvild and I decided to watch this together, separately. So we both watch an episode and then we talk about it the next day. It’s like having a bookclub.
Ølhund translates to beer hound, but is just a term for someone who loves beer.