Warning: It’s true what they say!

If you never put them down and rock them to sleep, if you let them sleep with you and cuddle and coddle them, they WILL become dependent on it.

And then one day, maybe a particularly busy week of work (like the other 51), your almost 7 year old will have a fever and demand you lay with him bc he’s uncomfortable and wants you, no ... NEEDS you. He won’t be able to get comfortable and fall into a deep, much-needed sleep without you next to him. And you’ll have to cancel a conference call and silence the email notifications ... just to freakin’ lay there! You’ll watch the minutes pass as you miss another deadline just to listen to him breathe and watch him fall deeper and deeper into sleep. 

You’ll irresponsibly forget to finish whatever you were doing before and remember, instead, laying next to the same kid when he was just months old and realize, that, in some ways he still is that little newborn nugget, at least to you anyway. Ugh you may even fall asleep yourself!

So you’ve been warned ! There’s still time to ignore them!

Ignore the people - the culture! - that pulls you in this direction and that direction and makes it easy to feel like you should be anywhere else but where you’re ACTUALLY needed most.

I know it’s a privilege to be able to do this - mom, work from home, to even be able to say no to work - and I do not take it for granted. AND as a mom who allowed myself to think work “needed me more” more often than I’d like to admit, and who will inevitably miss things to be at work, it’s nice to have - and share - this perspective.

I promise when you make the choice once, it gets easier to identify what’s really important! And, if you are a leader and have the privilege to say No without harsh consequence (a privilege), I encourage you to do it, not just for you but for every human who is a caretaker and has to unravel from the patriarchal “work before everything” pressure and accompanying guilt. Let’s normalize real life!

Ok — now back to Motrin + memes + working past midnight to make up for my midday nap.