Absent-minded parenting

I think absent minded parenting comes down to too much multitasking on too little sleep.  And/or not enough coffee.  I'll be in the middle of one thing while thinking ahead to the next ten things I have to do, and then mess up what I am doing in that moment.

Until recently, Sophia had one morning medication that we served her on a spoonful of applesauce.  Now she swallows the pill down with water, but back when she took it sprinkled on applesauce Jude always started fussing because he wanted the applesauce.  So one morning I wasn't paying attention, and popped the spoon into Jude's mouth.  John gave me a weird look and said "Why did you give that to Jude?"  I looked down at the spoon, looked at Jude (he was thrilled to get the applesauce), looked at Sophia (who was confused, but waiting patiently) . . . "Whoops!"

I learned my lesson, though, right?

You'd think.  A couple weeks later I did the exact same thing, gave the spoonful to Jude (who was again quite happy with the turn of events) while not really hearing Sophia . . . "No, Mama, don't give Jude my medicine!  That's mine!"

So it was a happy occasion when I discovered that Sophia could swallow pills no problem.  Because even I am not absent-minded enough to give Jude a whole pill minus the applesauce.

But apparently I am absent-minded enough to try to give him Sophia's inhaler!

Last week I shook up Sophia's inhaler to give her it to her in the tub.  I was trying to position it correctly on her face, but she kept trying to chew the facemask instead of letting it rest on her chin.  "Jude, stop chewing on the . . . ohhhhhhhhh.  Nevermind."  Moved onto the actual Sophia and gave it without incident.

I'm telling you, it would be so handy to have the hospital's medication scanning equipment here at home.  I could use a computer to tell me that I am attempting to give meds to the wrong kid.  Though lest you worry unduly about Jude, his two doses of her morning med were not a big deal.  She has been taking them daily for reflux since younger than Jude . . . he's fine!

Whenever I think I have finally gotten my act together, I get a little reminder that I can be just as spacey as ever.  Sophia generally wanders the house dressed in her skivvies, and has to be pretty cold to keep her clothes on.  Yesterday, though, I didn't have to say a thing and she kept them on all day.  Granted, I'm pretty sure it was the coldest day of the century, but she even holed up in the living room wrapped in a blanket for much of the morning.

I didn't think much of it until after lunch when I took a peek at the thermostat.  Hmmm.  Maybe if I had ever turned it up from the 58 degrees it was set at the night before the kid wouldn't be freezing her buns off!  No wonder Jude's hands were like ice cubes . . . 

The worst of my absent-minded misdeeds was back in September.  I fed the kids some messy spaghetti for dinner, and put Jude's shirt in the bathroom sink to soak while I gave them a bath.  Except I ran the sink water while running the tub water, so didn't hear or remember that I never shut off the sink.  It wasn't until I got up from kneeling by the tub to wash both kids hair that I realized there was a solid inch of water covering the floor.  The threshold was actually holding it back from going out into the hallway.  And the sink was continuing to gush forth as I took this all in.

A mighty leap toward the sink later and the water was off.  I used up all the towels we have other than the two I had out for Sophia and Jude to soak up the water, and then went downstairs to investigate.

Yep.  A nice little stream of water coming down the dining room wall.  Wiped that up and headed back upstairs to get fans going to dry out my very wet under-sink area.

No ceiling damage, no long-term effects . . . dodged a bullet with that one!

Until three nights later when John did the exact same thing, creating a flood of epic proportions.  That was super fun, because I hadn't washed the towels from the previous flood yet, so we had to improvise with our giant collection of washcloths and cloth diaper wipes, a sheet or two, and the kid's bath towels.   Good thing they didn't mind sharing the hand towel to dry off after their bath!

Neither of us had ever flooded the bathroom before, and haven't since.  And I have decided that God knew that I needed to make a flood happen first, or else I would have been really mad at John and said things that I would regret later.  Of course, the second time we were not quite so lucky . . . the water made it out into the hallway and we now have a nice water stain on our living room ceiling.  Pretty sure we can get new ceiling tiles at Home Depot, right?

Thank you to any of you who have ever given me a gift card to Starbucks.  You probably didn't know that by fueling my caffeine addiction you were truly helping me to be a better, more mindful parent.  You wouldn't think that someone with kids that sleep as much as mine do would have a sleep deficit, would you?  But between working one night a week and intermittently waking with Sophia during asthma exacerbations, I don't see the absent-minded thing going away for good anytime soon.  Bring on the caffeine, baby!

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