Do you remember the days where you could go out, party, fall into bed at 3am and then rise whenever you felt like it? No? Me neither. Mommy brain has completely wiped that freedom from my memory. I’m still not sure if forgetting is a blessing or a curse, though. 

I’ve had so many people ask what my husband and I are doing for NYE. My responses, while varied in wording, have been basically the same: “We have 3 kids. We are hoping that this is the night they let us sleep.” (I’ll pause here for you to laugh at that ridiculous dream)

You see, when you have 1 child, finding a teenager to watch tv while said child sleeps and you go out and pretend you’re still young & fancy free, is easy. You also still have enough disposable income to pay said teenager. 

When you have 2 kids, you could find a willing grandparent to watch the grandkids while you go out, but you’d really rather they take the kids overnight while you have a few friends over or you enjoy a bit of peace and quiet.

When you have 3 kids, there’s no money for the teenager and the grandparents say they’re “done raising kids and are no longer equipped to handle multiple children simultaneously” (and who could blame them?), but that’s ok, because you’re tired. Nay, exhausted. Toothpicks are needed to hold your eyelids open. 

So here is what NYE actually looks like: The kids go down between 7:30-8pm and then you decide to at least pretend you have an interest at seeing the ball drop at midnight (and not replayed on the morning news). So you sit on the couch, put a movie on and promptly fall asleep. When you wake up, one of you is on the couch still, the other on the floor. It’s 2:17am. You kick the floor dweller and mumble Happy New Year as you shuffle down the hall to your bedroom.

Of course, the baby will wake up at 2:42am, so you can always ring in the New Year with the folks on the West Coast, I guess…