"Dealing with 6 pee diapers = 1 regular poop diaper 3 regular poop diapers = 1 at-home blowout 3 at-home blowouts = 1 on-the-go blowout 1 blowout that gets on your clothes = 3 pukes that get on your clothes 1 puke that somehow gets in your mouth = 6 hours of holding a sleeping baby on an airplane in a way that screws up your neck for 2 days"
"1 hour of holding a crying baby on an airplane = 5 FaceTimes with your partner's family you get to skip Assembling 1 toy = Wrapping 8 presents Booking 1 doctor's appointment = Cooking 4 dinners 1 use of the disgusting snot-sucker thing = 1 Googling of symptoms + 1 telehealth appointment with the pediatrician + 1 trip to CVS to buy VapoRub + 1 trip back to CVS to buy baby VapoRub, which is apparently different"
"10 minutes of zoning out on your phone even though you could be unloading 1 dishwasher or folding 75 tiny pieces of baby laundry = Changing 1 peed-through onesie, 1 peed-through sleep sack, and 1 probably peed-through (but maybe just sweaty?-let's not risk it, though) crib sheet at 2 A.M. 1 golf game = Zero chance of that happening-in fact, just for asking, you now have to fold 75 tiny pieces of baby laundry"
Small caregiving actions compound into far greater burdens. Multiple pee diapers equal a single regular poop diaper, and several regular poop diapers lead to at-home blowouts that escalate to on-the-go blowouts. Mess incidents cascade into bodily messes and disrupted travel, including puke on clothes and prolonged awkward airplane holding that causes neck pain. Brief caregiving tasks replace leisure, social activities, and errands, while simple chores multiply into repeated laundry, lost sleep, skipped calls, and canceled outings. Medical and hygiene actions spawn searches, telehealth visits, and multiple pharmacy trips. Pregnancy and childbirth create long-term responsibility spanning decades.
Read at The New Yorker
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]