There is no question about it—exhausted and sleep-deprived mamas can do some crazy things. I’ve bumped into things, dropped objects, forgotten important messages, and missed appointments. We’ve all been there and done that.
I clearly reached a new level of tired the other day. At 6:00am, I shot up out of my bed in a panic. I had just woken from a terrible dream that my eldest son had come into my room and told me he vomited on his bed. In my dream, I didn’t console him or see if he was okay. I also didn’t go to his room and change his sheets. In this nightmare, I told him to throw a towel on his vomit and get himself back into bed. What kind of freakish nightmare mother tells their kid to lie in their own puke-filled sick bed?
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I am unnaturally sympathetic to anyone where vomiting is involved, because puking is my worst nightmare. When I was a kid, I would have to take a day off school if one of my siblings was sick, because I felt so sorry for them that I was unable to function. My extreme hate of puking explains why I was so horrified by my dream-state alter ego.
Since I woke up so disturbed, I thought I’d check on my kid, just to put my mind at rest.
I crept through the hallway and opened his bedroom door. He was lying in his bed listening to music on his iPod and his bedroom lights were all on. I asked him what the heck he was doing awake, to which he replied:
“I did what you told me to—I put a towel on my puke and went back to bed”.
And there it was right beside him . . . a towel.
My face must have undeniably displayed my feelings of complete horror and shame, because my son just hugged me and laughed at me.
Has sleep deprivation done anything crazy to you? Any experiences you can’t remember? Did you do something so foolish out of exhaustion that you’ll never live it down?
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