What are the good points of having children?
Oldest mite is driving me insane by waking up repeatedly for water, a toy and whatever he wanted. It goes like this:
Me: *sleeping*
OM: GAH! GAH! HA! MUMMMMMEEEE! ANNNNNGAH! GAH!
Me: *groggily wakes up and zombie-walks to OM’s room*
OM: *excited gibberish*
Me: What’s up, monster? (signs) What do you want?
OM: (signs) Drink!
Me: (signs) Water?
OM: (excited giggle) *nod nod*
Me: *zombie-walks down to kitchen, stumbles through motions, and zombie-walks back up* Here you go, water.
OM: *drinks*
Me: (signs) Go to sleep now.
OM: *lies down and squeezes his eyes shut*
Me: *zombie-walks back to bedroom and into bed*
Roughly 10 minutes later
OM: GAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
How many times so far tonight? Eleven bloody times. I did try to ignore one but he was so noisy that I was worried he’d wake the youngest mite up. At the moment he’s on the floor playing with toys. He’s obviously wide awake. He hadn’t had a long nap yesterday. I’m betting he will have one or two later. And tiredness will make him and me cranky. *sob*
[edited: forgot to explain - 'Gah' and 'Anngah' are OM's ways of saying Anna's name, but he sometimes uses it to address anyone he thinks would get him what he wants or needs.]
We keep bottle of water on dresser, so the deal is that she has to help herself. Ditto bathroom. Also she knows how to turn lullaby on. Despite this, there are wake-ups. “Bad dream. Give me a nice dream so I can go back to sleep.”
How old is the little guy?
To me the trouble with children is, either you are so strict with them that you as an individual will proser and thrive with enough sleep time, time for your hubby and time for your hobbies (as my parents have had but I had a very strict upbringing, if I had pulled such a stunt like your OM my mother have either yelled at me, not talked to me for hours or spanked me) but your kiddo will be an insecure little mite who’s afraid of his own shadow (as I was) or you have a wonderful, bright, healthy and exuberant child but your own life is shit. That is the impression I get which is why I have decided not to have children because I don’t want to be like my mother but I also want some time for myself, too, some sex and enough sleep. If there’s a middle ground where both parties feel good I have yet to see it. I guess with rich people you have that, all those nannies who take care when you need some time to recover and relax.
On the other hand, you’ll never spend Christmas alone while I will be a grumpy old lady with seven cats. Always think of the alternatives…
Kerstin
Aw, how sweet–he’s training you.
That sounds like my night last night. Generally, sleep is one thing I’m really strict on and I don’t respond to every single squawk. But there are times when you have no choice: when they’re sick, when you can tell they’re in genuine distress, had a bad dream, etc.
At the moment, we’re spoiled as our oldest doesn’t open the bedroom door to come out at night or during naps. He always calls us when he wants to be released. I have the sneaking suspicion that this will come to an abrupt end when his sister is no longer contained in her cot. I’m anticipating many guest appearances from her!
BTW, does your mite react to the full moon? Mine turn into werewolves the couple of nights leading up to it.
Hope you all get a good night’s sleep!
They are your retirement plan?