Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans. This helps explain why, instead of attending a fundraiser for Board of Selectman candidate Andrew Deslaurier, I ended up sitting on the couch watching Elmo lead a monster parade down Sesame Street Saturday afternoon.
Last week I wrote about the hurdles citizens must jump in order to serve in Town Meeting. One of those is collecting signatures for the nomination papers, and I suggested that candidates attend events like Mr. Delaurier’s at the Country Club this past Saturday. And then I didn’t show up myself, despite it being a 2 minute drive from my house.
After spending the morning painting the bathroom, making bread, and reconfiguring my home wireless network, I was in the shower by 2:30 or so. After that I found both my kids (ages 3 and 5 months) sleeping. At the same time. This is about as common as a new store opening in the Zombie Mall. Anyway, I got dressed and waited for everyone to wake up so we could go. Finally a few minutes after 4, when the event started, the 3 year-old woke up, but she was crying.
In the bathroom, she looked up at me with pained eyes and said, “Daddy, I don’t feel good.”
At that point I wasn’t taking her to anywhere. If I was president I would have postponed the State of the Union address.
After I cleaned up, I made her some ginger ale with the bubbles stirred out (which she didn’t like) and found some crackers. And I took her downstairs to watch TV under a blanket.
A while later my wife told me I should go to the event myself. I had made a commitment to go. And I could have. I could have jumped in the car and had a drink in my hand in five minutes, talking with my friends. But that would leave my wife with two sick kids. (The infant has a cold.)
In that last post I somewhat coldly cited “other priorities” as a reason why it is difficult for many citizens to get involved in their community, especially politics. For parents, their priority is their kids, and nothing else comes close.
Maybe a generation ago, as the man of the family I would have attended that event and not looked back. But my wife and I are about as equal as it gets when it comes to raising daughters. We alternate overnight wake-ups, nasty diapers, bottle feedings, storytime. We both attend doctor’s appointments. On rare occasions we each get out of the house by ourselves to get some (vastly underrated) alone time. But when one (or both, in this case) of the kids is sick, that would always supersede those plans.
The punch line is that it appears the 3 year-old was exaggerating her discomfort. It would not be the first time she dialed up the drama. She was fine the rest of the night and it’s even possible her “sickness” was the lingering aftereffect of a bad dream. In other words, had we gone to the event, she would probably have been fine. But you don’t take chances with your kids.
So I still have two lonely signatures on my paper — mine and my wife’s. I’ll have to hit the cold bricks for the rest. Here’s hoping for an extra warm Saturday or Sunday between now and February 27.
