Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Midnight Triage

A younger colleague and I occasionally wonder if there is a 4th law of thermodynamics, one in which sleep is conserved among parents who teach thermodynamics. The other morning - after having been up in the wee hours of the morning not once, but twice, with Crash and the Boy, I inquired if NanoBaby has slept through the night. "For 8 solid hours." Another data point in favor of the hypothesis.

"So, I know what you do when you get up with a baby. Change the diaper, feed her, pat her, rock her...what do you do with a big kid?"

"Well, I start by asking what's wrong, but seriously, my next question is always: Are you going to throw up?"

For the record: no one threw up. I got Crash water and the Boy his inhaler. No one but me remembered it in the morning. I'm pretty sure it actually happened.

2 comments:

  1. Anonymous9:22 PM

    This is probably a variant of the one I know well: Kids derive their energy by sucking it out of their parents.

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  2. That actually may be the real 4th law of thermodynamic parenting!!

    ReplyDelete