Lately I’ve been thinking about how, in my thirties, I’ve come to understand how deeply related eating and sleeping and emotions are.
So much so that I wonder how I got through my twenties without realising that I got grumpy when I needed to eat. Or that I hit “the wall” about 9 hours after waking up and need half an hour of downtime before I can as much as converse with anyone again.
Then Sally points out that, in my twenties, I only ever got properly grumpy or angry about twice a year. Which is totally true. And she pointed out that having kids probably made me these things start happening.
She’s right – it’s not that I’ve realised that these things happen, it’s that these things just didn’t used to happen. They happen because I’m doing things – sleeping and eating – on someone else’s schedule. Or, at best/worst, a combination of someone else’s schedule AND my schedule.
And so we’ve come to see that one of the key facts of parenting is that you really truly do start living someone else’s life.