Looking Perfect when Unconscious
In today’s reprinted For Better or For Worse, John Patterson talks about how the kids always look perfect when they are sleeping. If it were me, I would caveat that by saying, they look perfect when they are sleeping and they are still. My son is a terrible sleeper and it was months and months before he could make it all the way through the night. In his early days, when I was getting up in the middle of the night with him, and I did the diapering, feeding, rocking and putting him to bed routine; the sound I always feared after I put him to bed was the “thump thump thump” of a restlessly sleeping child.
There are tricks you can try. We had a mechanical swing that my son liked, which was usually pretty good at knocking him out, but it was very difficult to get him in and out of it without waking him up due to its very noisy Velcro straps. Another alternative (only tried when I was desperate) was putting him in the car seat in the car and driving him around until he passed out. One trick someone told us was that you could put the car seat on top of a clothes dryer and it simulated car motion, but that never worked.
Most of the times I remember enjoying my children sleeping was when they would crawl on top of me while I was lying down on a couch, and then go to sleep on my stomach. These were great moments, because if you had a child sleeping on you (particularly a child like my boy who slept terribly) then you were exempt from doing other household chores. “Sorry, honey. Can’t take the trash out. The baby’s asleep. I’ll do it after he wakes up.”
However, I will admit on the surface of it, John Patterson is right. Kids (and even surly wives) look a lot more pleasant during sleep. Their features soften. You can hear their little kids breathing. Husbands probably look more pleasant when sleeping too; but I wouldn't know.
There are tricks you can try. We had a mechanical swing that my son liked, which was usually pretty good at knocking him out, but it was very difficult to get him in and out of it without waking him up due to its very noisy Velcro straps. Another alternative (only tried when I was desperate) was putting him in the car seat in the car and driving him around until he passed out. One trick someone told us was that you could put the car seat on top of a clothes dryer and it simulated car motion, but that never worked.
Most of the times I remember enjoying my children sleeping was when they would crawl on top of me while I was lying down on a couch, and then go to sleep on my stomach. These were great moments, because if you had a child sleeping on you (particularly a child like my boy who slept terribly) then you were exempt from doing other household chores. “Sorry, honey. Can’t take the trash out. The baby’s asleep. I’ll do it after he wakes up.”
However, I will admit on the surface of it, John Patterson is right. Kids (and even surly wives) look a lot more pleasant during sleep. Their features soften. You can hear their little kids breathing. Husbands probably look more pleasant when sleeping too; but I wouldn't know.
posted by howard at 10:53 PM
5 Comments:
Today's strip is a comedic staple that you could only get wrong if you put a lot of effort into it, effort Lynn didn't spare. That's why it will last better than some of the other strips we've seen this week. On that note, it seems to me that the rare calm, peaceful moments in the Patterson household are what people remember when they talk about what a great family John and Elly have. The Cofee Talkers, I should think, brush off the screaming and phone book eating as being out of the ordinary.
dreadedcandiru2,
This strip had the advantage of being both something to which most parents can relate, and a rare moment of good parenting by both Patterson parents. Also, a rare moment when Coffee Talkers and snarkers can be united together, at least until tomorrow's strip.
Yes, for once we do have something in common with them and it's only because of this strip. Tomorrow, we will go back to not being on the same page. It's as universal as today's but Elly goes back to being a failure.
dreadedcandiru2,
Tomorrow, we will go back to not being on the same page.
Thank goodness for that. If I were on the same page as the Coffee Talkers for 2 strips in a row, I would begin to question my snarking skills.
As would I. Fortunately, Lynn provides us with so many opportunities to be irritated by Elly's self-defeating behavior, an example of which you will see tomorrow morning.
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