Up All Night

Up All Night, the new comedy series, starring Christina Applegate, Maya Rudolph and Will Arnett is about new parents trying to balance their home life, work life, and baby.  I know all about being up all night and trying to juggle personhood and parenthood. I fondly remember years of on demand nursing (a.k.a. breast-feeding) my two darling children, our family bed, immunizations, childhood diseases including the chicken pox they shared with me, and so on.  After the first five years of being a Mom, I completely forgot how to sleep through the night.

Being up all night has new meaning when your child is no longer that adorable infant or toddler. Chronologically adult children bring new reasons to be Up All Night.

* Up All Night is when your child is away at school during a hurricane.

* Up All Night is when your daughter has a date in a neighboring state with someone you don’t know at all.

* Up All Night is when your child is vacationing far from home with peers.

* Up All Night is when you hear the refrain within your maternal DNA that asks, “It’s ten o’clock; do you know where your children are,” and your don’t.

Although I’ve made some progress in the Not-Up-All-Night Department, I still have much to learn. My dear friend Tina has been trying to teach me that FEAR is nothing more than False Evidence Appearing Real. There’s simply no good reason to worry unless there’s real reason to worry. Now doesn’t that sound easy? Of course it isn’t; but I am trying… one sleepless night at a time.