Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Family vs. Fraternity: Awake at 3 AM

I wrote a post titled Family vs. Fraternity some months ago. It was an attempt to tell stories about two vastly different parts of my life. It is really a weak attempt to compare life before and after children like millions of others have done before me. In other words, it is not an entirely unique concept.

Nonetheless, I am going to do it again.

We have had some rough nights with Braden lately. He is typically a great sleeper. He has been falling asleep on his own and sleeping through the night for months. For some reason during the last month to six weeks he has started waking up some nights and refusing to go back to sleep. He plays and talks and screams and keeps everyone awake.

So this led me to thinking about the different reasons a person might be up at 3 am. I have compiled two top 10 lists below in this version of Family vs. Fraternity.

Family:
  1. Changing a dirty diaper
  2. Cleaning yourself up after stupidly trying to change a dirty diaper in the dark
  3. Crawling on your hands and knees in the dark looking for a lost pacifier
  4. Retrieving lost monkeys
  5. Applying medication for teething pain
  6. Discussing the virtues of sleeping at night with a 14 month old child
  7. Discussing the virtues of sleeping at night with yourself
  8. Feeding the kid something in the hope that this will cure his sleeplessness
  9. Yelling at the dogs to shut up because they woke the baby
  10. Rearranging or swapping out lighted singing toys to try to soothe the little man back to sleep
Fraternity:
  1. Bar hopping
  2. A friend called you to get them out of jail
  3. Waiting on a friend to get you out of jail
  4. Poker night
  5. Watching Braveheart on stolen HBO for the 57th time
  6. No class tomorrow and sleeping is just boring
  7. Impromptu road trip to Memphis and/or Tunica Casinos
  8. Cramming for a test. Seriously. Stop laughing.
  9. Debating the pros and cons of Jim Beam vs. Jack Daniels
  10. Party at the fraternity house

12 comments:

rxBambi said...

you forgot cleaning up after barfing in your roommates bed. that never happened to me, I was not in a fraternity...

ericdbolton said...

In family, the spanking are called discipline.

In a fray, its called hazing.

Captain Dumbass said...

Being in category one now makes category two much less appealing than it was back then.

Brian Miller said...

lol. never change a diaper in the dark. never.

yep those (both) were the good old days. now we are on to ER visits, which remind me more and more of the fraternity days...

Mike said...

Tunica! Been there! Done that! LOL! I love it there.

Rob said...

Why would you ever be comparing Jim Beam vs. Jack Daniels? Jack wins every time!!!

Great Post!

Anonymous said...

Do what I do, combine explaining the benefits of sleep to a toddler while watching braveheart.

Jen said...

I am not seeing much difference. ;)

Jack Steiner said...

Been a few year since Fraternity life for me, but I remember the lack of sleep.

You didn't sleep at the house unless you locked your door and were prepared for battle.

Never knew what kind of craziness might erupt at any minute. So much fun and so long ago. Oy. ;)

Momo Fali said...

It seems to me that retrieving lost monkeys could be on either list.

Frogs in my formula said...

You need to blend. Might I suggest swigs of Jim Bean while crawling on your hands and knees? Poker hands while yelling at dogs?

WeaselMomma said...

Ah, how life changes. 20 years ago it was fun to satay up half the night. Now it's torturous.