I got home late one night. Really late. Everyone was asleep. I was very tired. I hit the pillow and soon after fell asleep. I awoke to my wife leaving early. She was heading somewhere. She told me about this before, earlier, but I was really tired. I tried to go back to sleep for a while. I tossed and turned. I pulled the covers over my head. I covered my eyes with a pillow… alas. Not possible. I awoke. I carefully checked on our son (still sleeping) and decided to make some tea and try to get some work done. No sooner had my laptop booted up when I heard “Mommy?” from upstairs. Someone I knew all too well was awake and looking for his favorite parent (well, I don’t know, he likes me too). Today would not be a work morning, but it would be a partly confusing one for the little guy.
With no mother in sight, what is a boy to do? He was partially asleep when he came downstairs. I said, “Do you want to eat some cereal with Daddy?” “Yeah… Mommy? Where’s mommy?” “Mommy went somewhere to do some work this morning. She’ll come back soon.” He just stared at me. It didn’t make sense. Mom was ALWAYS here and no she wasn’t. What was going on? It seemed to last minutes. In reality it was probably around ten seconds, but he just stared at me. I asked again, “Do you want to eat some cereal with Daddy?” “Yeah.” “And sit on the sofa?” “Yeah.” This time a smile. We sat. We ate. He smiled. All was well. It would be another hour or so before he asked for Mommy again. I suppose I’d done well. When Mom got home he was very pleased and contented. All was right with the world: everyone was home.