Saturday, January 17, 2009

On the Importance of Sleep - Parenthood and Cannibalism

I am happy to announce that my head is still attached. The reason this is news is that on frequent occasions of late, my wife has tried to bite it off. Lest anyone accuse us of cannibalism, I am speaking metaphorically.

It isn't that she is a mean person or quick to anger, though you might think that she is. It is that she simply does not get enough sleep. Neither of us does. She stays up late to take care of things around the house. Really, though, they don't need to be done. I do the laundry, the dishes, feed our daughter, sometimes our son as well if she comes home late. I take care of everything when she is home late or out of town. One thing she insists on doing is pumping milk for our son. He's going to be one soon. We have formula. He'd probably be fine without milk now. But she insists. Even though she takes so much time to do it out of every day. Ok, so there are health benefits. Still, I wish she'd stop just so she'd get more sleep. She has to drive. She goes out of town every few months. I actually think that is good, despite the work it is for me, because when she's out of town, I know she can just get some sleep.

So I'm really looking forward to my son's first birthday. I'm hoping we'll all be better rested after that. I recall hearing that teenagers these days don't get enough sleep, either. They have too many activities, they stay up too late, and as a result, they don't learn as well.

I hope my kids don't fall into tha trap. I know, I might as well wish for the moon. Oh well. I can always wish for Helium-3.

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