The husband and I like to look back and laugh.
Not in a 'oh that's funny' kind of way more in a 'what fools we were' kind of way.
When I first got pregnant we talked about how the baby was coming to our party. We were not going to be those parents.
The kind that stop living as soon as they have kids.
We were going to continue living the life we wanted to. We would not miss parties because we couldn't get a sitter - we would just bring baby along.
We were going to continue to travel. We like(d) to jump on a flight and find accommodations when we got there. We liked to decide Friday at 6pm to go away for the weekend and throw a bag in the car.
No reason not to throw a porta crib and some diapers in the car too.
WRONG!
Even although I think I do have a laid back attitude - it just isn't that simple.
You can take the baby with you but it can mess up their sleep pattern and you will lose hours of sleep.
You can drop everything and go away last minute but the baby might not deal well with the heat or altitude or some other thing you can't control.
Result?
Most likely loss of sleep. Endless crying (you and baby) and an overwhelming desire to go home.
If sleep deprivation is not your Achilles heel you might fair better than me.
My kids are not babies anymore but I do still have a napper.
Naps are such a mixed blessing. I love the time to get some stuff done.
I hate that I have to plan my entire day around being home (or driving up and down the freeway) for two hours everyday.
What's my point?
You can't plan this. You can't control it. So just go with it.
Any ideas how to do that?
Also, don't publicly accuse your two year old of leaving your freezer open and wasting lots of food.
You might later find that the freezer is actually broken which had nothing to do with aforementioned sweet, angelic two year old....
Very true.
ReplyDeleteBut later on when you look back you will feel that things were not bad, yes maybe we should not have done like that, or may be saying this and not that would have been appropriate . . . . so on and so forth, but on the whole its a great experience (bringing up kids) Just enjoy it because once the kids are grown up you don't get that chance back.
What I found so annoying was that at the time when you could travel easily with them (pre-crawling), you yourself are so wrecked by sleep deprivation that who would want to??
ReplyDeleteYou are brilliant. I had the same experience. I was in a band (how I met baby's daddy) and was CERTAIN I'd be that cool pregnant chick still playing shows and then later that cool mom still playing shows and drinking and going out and going to friends' houses and out of town on a moment's notice and almost none of these things happened. Even now, (2.5 year old toddler) I keep trying and trying and trying but it doesn't work. The lack of sleep for everyone involved and the spills and almost-broken wine glasses and it just feels like everyone lives in a glass house (not that you can see in but that every frickin' thing in there is breakable). Anyway, lots more I could say, but it just feels so nice to read this and know you GET IT.
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