A friend and fellow parent posted this to his FB status the other day –

‎”Sometimes I feel unqualified to be a parent and I call those times being awake.” – Jim Gaffigan

I couldn’t help but think so true, so true.  Yet, in that moment either Lola was alseep or I was not fully awake because I was feeling somewhat qualified.  Not totally qualified, just slightly fooled into thinking I had it all under control even if only for that moment.

Tonight I was reminded not only am I not in control, I sometimes have NO idea what I’m doing.

The usual bedtime tactic – Mama, I’m hungry.

Seriously, kiddo?  I remember you had dinner.  How can you be hungry?  Clearly this is part of the stall tactic.

Of course, being the BRILLIANT and Completely Qualified parent that I am, I crafted a plan.

Me:  If you can drink these 12 ounces of water then you can have a snack.

Brilliant, right?  The water will fill her up and she will realize she’s not actually hungry.  Who knows she might even fall asleep before she finishes.  Clearly, I’m a genius.

Lola downs the water in record time and claims she is still hungry.  I give in.

The wiser parent, my husband, clearly more qualified than I am, says, “You know she’s going to wake you up in the middle of the night needing to go to the bathroom.”  It’s not like that never happens, so I wasn’t worried, plus she actually went to the bathroom after she finished all the water.

10:15 – Enter Lola – disheveled hair, sleepy eyes, wandering through the living room half asleep – clearly she needs to go to the bathroom.  I pick her up.  Too late.  I guess we didn’t have to wait for her to wake up in the middle of the night.  I really wanted to do an extra load of laundry tonight.

So apparently, I’m not a genius, nor am I really all that qualified.  Why did I think I could outsmart the 3 year old out of a bed time snack?  It’s good to be humbled, right?