Children and sleeping and other things they do and do not....

I've been chatting with my daughter a lot lately.  Well, we honestly talk every single day on the phone and least once and usually more than once.  It might be for just a minute to clarify a recipe, or it might be five minutes to discuss the current weather, or it might be for an hour, depending on the children's decibel level.  Why is it when you're on the phone and there are children in your house, the decibel level goes up and they want to talk to you?    Anyway, much of the time my daughter talks to me about her children and the difficulty of raising them.  Sometimes she asks for advice, but much of the time, I think she just wants someone to talk to about it who can commiserate and say, " Don't worry honey, this too shall pass."  (My MIL used to say this to me.)

One days while talking to OnlyDaughter on the phone, she was telling me about how her children don't sleep which translates into -- she and her husband don't sleep.  I don't think they've slept a whole night through since 2010.

As she was dumping her no-sleep woes on me, she said curtly, "It must be nice to sleep every single night, all night long."

I truthfully yet cynically said, "Yes, it IS lovely."

To which she sheepishly replied, "Ummm, I guess you've paid your dues."

To which I replied, "Ah, yes, I have!"

I am certain that I invented the shared family bed that is touted as the new modern family norm.  It wasn't meant to happen in my world, because I intended for every family member to sleep in his or her own bed always and every night without waking up, but when the mother is a totally exhausted zombie and the baby needs to nurse and the 2-year old has been up with a cough most of the night, everyone gets to sleep in the big bed.  One of our babies slept with us so much that he thought my silky nightie was his blankie.  In fact, he dragged it around the house with him to suck his thumb.  It was fine at home, but we couldn't have that in public or when the grandparents came so I finally bought a couple silky neckerchiefs  to stuff in my purse.  (Ah-hem.)

Just this morning I got an email from OnlyDaughter with the following video.  It was so hilariously true I just had to share it with you.  She said it reminded her of her just-married-brother who wants to start a family soon.  I hope it makes you laugh-out-your- eyes like it did me.