Go, Joe! Mom and Dad’s Real American Hero
by Tess F. |
August 11, 2010 01:23 PM |
18 comments
Tess F.
Location:
Cranford, NJ
Favorite Flavor:
Pumpkin Spice
If you could travel back in time, what era would you live in? I like where I am now. Facebook. iPhones. Movies on Demand.
How do you unwind after a long day? DVR'd TV with my husband, who always makes me laugh.
Three things you cannot live without…My family, my iPhone, my coffee.
I am a member of the Coffee-mate Brew Crew.
Nothing, short of on-the-job experience as a baby nurse (or maybe an ER resident), can prepare you for the exhaustion you experience as a parent, especially those first hectic, sleepless, can’t-I-even-get-two-minutes-to-myself? weeks.
Yes, it’s joyful. Yes, it’s magical. But yes—oh, yes—it is completely, utterly draining, and the beauty of your precious newborn’s smile just ain’t gonna keep your eyes open.
Following the births of both my kids, coffee was like a life-raft (literally!)—whenever my head started bobbing, I would grab on to a cup. All those stories you hear about new moms making simple mistakes as a result of severe sleep deprivation are true, as evidenced in my plugging in not one but two totally empty percolators while foggily trying to get my fix. Not only did I break them both, I’m lucky I didn’t burn the house down.
Fun fact: my husband Dave spent a good deal of our pre-child relationship shaking his head at my daily need for coffee.
It’s all in your head, he’d say, I don’t drink coffee, and I can get myself out of bed in the morning.
Besides, he’d add, coffee is gross. Why drink something you have to put so much into in order to make it taste good?
Fast forward to present day and this same man has crafted his own personal coffee bar at the office, with a stock of paper cups, stirrers, and a dizzying array of powdered Coffee-mate creamers and flavored syrups beneath his desk. The former naysayer is now the mad scientist of latte-land.
But I’m not complaining—we’re considering a fancy hot beverage brewer as a joint anniversary gift to ourselves.
In fact, dare I say that I’m kinda lovin’ how coffee is bringing us closer together during these trying, tiring times? On Saturday and Sunday mornings, we all look forward to our family coffee run to our favorite haunt, which yields coffee for us and a shared blueberry muffin for the boys. And darned if the staff doesn’t greet Dave by name and actually invite him to join them out later for socializing at the local watering hole.
It’s like coffee karma, I tell him. You embrace it, and there’s no telling what goodness lies in store.
Has having kids impacted your coffee habit? Has a shared love for coffee strengthened your marriage? And is it crazy of me to look at the baby’s changing table every morning and envision it repurposed someday as a funky java station in our living room?