Published Mar 18, 2013
It’s kind of astounding how much time is completely unproductive when a baby’s around. I used to have my vast to-do list and every free minute involved pulling the next thing off the top of the list and getting it going. Or screwing around and reading Fark. Or perhaps some combination of the two. At any rate, there was always a pretense towards productivity. Since Declan came along? Not a bit.
My lifestyle has changed, in that now I spend hours a day doing nothing but watching TV. No watching TV and doing my e-mail, or watching TV and paying bills: I’m just straight watching the TV. Oh, and holding my son. We’re watching TV together and sometimes he’s even eating. See, I’m not the one who’s productive anymore.
My life is very much about waiting for whatever Declan needs. Starting on something while I’m waiting for him? Not a good use of my time; I’ll just end up interrupted and won’t finish. Like this blog entry, for instance — I started it yesterday and was interrupted by a feeding. I can see my boy starting to stir right now and I know in a minute or two he’ll be awake and need a changing and a bottle again, and this entry won’t be finished until tomorrow.
So tonight I won’t get my very important tasks, like putting a couple of extra screws in that old Barcalounger so that it doesn’t fall apart. But I sure will sit in that Barcalounger, rickety as it is, and feed my son a bottle while we watch some great TV together. My to-do list will remain untouched, but Declan will practice his eating and his stretching and maybe, if we’re both lucky, his head-lifting. And it’s his to-do list that’s important now not mine.