Just where is Tiredsville?

“I am tireder than I tired thing from Tiredsville!”

In order to substantiate this statement I guess we first need to know:

· what a tired thing is
· just how tired the tired thing is
· where is ‘Tiredsville’
· how tired do you have to be to be more tired than the tired thing
· and just what on earth am I rambling on about?

Parenting brings on these moments of tiredness that are totally indescribable. Mainly because you are unable to string two words together because you are so exhausted and your brain has turned to mush.

I remember when my girls were first born, those first few months of every three hours, night and day, that were so totally debilitating. It was a real struggle moving from Saturday and Sunday morning lie ins, with a newspaper and a cup of tea; to the overnight total lack of regard a small person has for their parent’s rest and relaxation routine.

I longed and fantasised about the day when I would not feel tired anymore. I knew that then my life would be great. I even started recognising different types of tiredness:

· the foggy tiredness, when you move and act automatically and are somehow unable to make decisions beyond the next 10 minutes, the next hour, the next day.

· the intense bodily tiredness where your entire body feels as though it is wading through porridge. It takes an enormous effort to walk, bend down, get up, even blink!

· the tension tiredness, where you neck feels tight from the base of your skull to the tips of your shoulder blades.

· the numbing tiredness when you can't feel anything. Not happy, not sad, not upset, not excited, not guilty or encouraged.

· and then the tiredness where you feel everything at once. Sad and happy and angry and scared and laughing and crying.

I still long for and fantasise about the day when I will not feel tired anymore. The small person drops the night feeds, sleeps through, but still gets up early. The older they get the later they go to bed, but they still get up early and your day gets busier with running them here and there and running after them here and there. What you gain in sleep you expend in energy. The even older they get, the even later they go to bed and it has been known on more than one occasion recently for my two girls to ‘tuck me in’ at bedtime. The good news is they then sleep in until midday, the bad news is you are up early bringing them tea and a newspaper in bed – the good news is you get to wake them up to give it to them! Ha ha! Revenge is sweet (tee hee).

I’m off to Tiredsville to find out what a tired thing is. I guess I am looking for something that looks a bit like me. I will start my search by looking on the inside of my eyelids.

Hope you all have a restful weekend, sleep well x x x x