Today, I was being a good member of the village and caring for one of our best friend’s babies for a couple of days, to cover the couple of days before her real-childcare started, as she has returned to work. It’s the village, everyone’s got to do their part.
First, I could never, ever have a dayhome. I barely had pants on when they arrived in the morning, and second, babies are hard when they’re not yours. You have no idea what this thing wants, and you can’t shove a boob in it’s mouth for a few moments of quiet. Then, there’s the whole guilt of catching up on season 5 of Girls with *holycrap longest naked scene ever* in front of someone else’s kid while yours naps - even though it’s a baby.
Most of the day, she was not a happy camper. She didn’t want to nap more than a few minutes and was a pro at angry yoga poses. Violet knocked her over a couple of times playing superhero, nearly ran into her with a scooter and wouldn’t let her play with the ‘special Lego horse’, and loved a little too hard most of the day, until I gave in, shooed her away with the iPad upstairs and tried to entice the little to nap.
Babies kind of suck, when they’re not your own, but the funniness of Violet’s one-liners, like “When is this kid just going to go home?”, the two minutes of baby giggles and the hilarious angry-ostrich-yoga poses got us through the day.
I called Jamie and said “I think I regret my life decisions. Crap, did we really just sign on to do all of this again when our kid can pretty much fend for itself?”
He reminded me that it would be easier, and yeah, it’s probably going to suck for a little while - but those hilarious one-liners that come out of three-year-old’s mouths are well, worth it.
He reminded me of the rule. The rule is - nighttime parenting sucks: and if you say something between one am and six am, it can’t be held against you. No grudges. No fights. If you’re sleep deprived and you say it, it just doesn’t count.
Not many people get this rule - Friends balk at it, Family? That’s crazy - you can’t just get a pass for what you say when you were tired! Parenting an infant? A newborn? Or a toddler that won’t sleep in their bed - this rule is going to save your relationship.
It’s a good rule.
It’s a solid rule.
It will get us through.