Any idiot can tell you that being a parent is tiring. Sometimes, I am so drained by the end of the day that every bone in my body seems to ache, every muscle sore, and I actually feel nauseous from the physical exhaustion. And at these moments, all that gets me through the next minute and all subsequent units of ever-stretching time is knowing that soon, I will be able to rest my wearied body.
But once both kids are fed, bathed, and down for the night…
The second wind kicks in.
I like to compare my second wind with injecting a car engine with nitrous oxide.
(image source)
This renewed energy isn’t all bad. After all, it’s the only thing that allows us to do the dishes, fold the laundry, and tidy up the house. Without it, we wouldn’t be able to prepare meals for the following day. Without it, we wouldn’t even have the energy to feed ourselves dinner! Without it, our home would be in complete disarray.
But this bastard of a second wind is also responsible for keeping us in front of our computers, checking email, reading news sites, and writing blog posts. It keeps us attached to our phones playing the latest “it” game (which is, at the moment, is Draw Something). It dries out my contact lenses even further with one more page of that book that I simply must keep reading.
It is what is responsible for keeping us up until midnight, or 1 or even 2 in the morning when we all know very well that sleep — that wonderful, DELICIOUS sleep! — is what we crave the most when we are awake.
It’s no wonder that when the baby wakes up between 3:00-4:00am, we groggily wonder to ourselves, ‘Didn’t we JUST fall asleep?’
Why, yes, we did. And we have no one to blame but ourselves. 😉
