BYOS

Hubby came back from a business trip on Thursday night, and he didn't look so good. This morning, he staggered out of bed to entertain A&Z so that I could sleep in, by the time I got up to eat breakfast with them, he really didn't look so good.

So I sent him to bed.

We met up for lunch, hung out together, and then, I was sent to bed. After an hour, I was, in fact, human again. (The newish version of Disney's Beauty and the Beast has a new song: To Be Human Again. It is now our theme song, to be sung after naps, meals, baths. It is good stuff!)

Anyway, I woke up and said, "Let's go get some ramen for dinner." So we did.

We went to a local ramen joint, one that opens at 5:30 but has a line forming at 5:10. (Yes, I fully realize how ridiculous it is to go stand in line for ramen, but this is really tasty ramen.) There were a few other families there as well, and I love eating in an establishment where lots of families go: Even if my children are loud and annoying, there will be other loud and annoying children to share the blame.

When we sat down, though, I realized these four other families were not at all like us. They all came with a LOT of their own stuff: booster seats, plastic covers for the tables, all kinds of containers for their kids, and even, a pair of SCISSORS to cut up food!

I remember the days when we used to bring stuff with us to restaurants. Aidan was our only child, and we brought a catch-all bib, his own booster seat, little containers of cut up food. When Zoe came along, we stopped bringing these things for Aidan, because he turned three and well, we had other supplies to bring with us, like diapers. When Zoe could sit and eat with us, we still didn't bring all this with us. We got lazy, and followed the benign neglect model of parenting: You can eat from a restaurant high chair, and you will eat whatever is there, don't lick the table, because this mother cannot be bothered with all that accoutrement, and if you don't lick the table, she won't need to cover the table.

On the other hand, I loved going places with these ultra prepared parents: They always had extra wipes for me to use, extra clothing for me to borrow, and I could be totally lazy.

There, I said it out loud, we parent via the lazy way.