Yesterday afternoon, as I was eating some lunch with my (almost) 3 year old, I commented that he was sleepy; I could tell by how he looked, and because he kept rubbing his eyes. His response?
“No!”
I told him that yes, he was sleepy, and that as soon as we were done eating, he was going to lay down and take a short nap. Otherwise he’d be grumpy all evening.
“Noooo!” (whiny) “I want to play with trucks!”
“You can play with your trucks after you take a little nap. You’re really sleepy.”
Ultimately, he did take a little nap, and was quite pleasant the rest of the evening.
Fast forward to late last night, when I was in bed, reading (I’m almost done with The Golden Compass). I was really sleepy, and was having trouble focusing on the words in my book; I was to that point where you have to read each paragraph two or three times to really get what’s going on.
I thought, “I really should stop reading now, and go to sleep.” And without even a brief pause, I then responded to myself (in thought) with: “No! I really want to finish this chapter!”
Like father, like son, I suppose.
Tags: fatherhood, kids, parenting
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June 21, 2007 at 12:24 pm
Joshua J. Slone
That “read each paragraph two or three times” phase is a pain. If I’m not at a convenient stopping point, the next day it’s hard to tell where to pick up. “Did I read this? It seems vaguely familiar.”
June 21, 2007 at 12:27 pm
Josh
Yeah, it is a pain. I don’t like stopping in the middle of a chapter (unless, like you said, there’s a convenient stopping point), but sometimes, I think it’s better than slogging on, half asleep. A few nights ago I read 6 or 7 pages in The Golden Compass to reach the end of the chapter, even though I was really tired. The next day, while all of it seemed “vaguely familiar”, I couldn’t really remember what had happened, so I had to reread all of it.
June 21, 2007 at 4:43 pm
Nils
Lol, it’s funny coz it’s true. Did I read this? That’s so familiar indeed. Actually, I should finally switch off the comp and go to bed. And I still want to read a bit.
June 22, 2007 at 2:33 pm
Jared
We’re all three-year-olds. Three-year-olds are just honest.
June 23, 2007 at 8:34 am
Josh
Nicely put, Jared.