Weird parenting behaviour: We want them to sleep

Notice that the moment you have a baby, you immediately want them to sleep.

All the joy, exuberance, excitement you get upon receiving the bundle of a screaming screaming infant disappears after 2 seconds and all you want is for the child to fall into silent slumber. You tip-toe, talk in hush whispers and watch the TV in mute, learning to lip-read the actors on the screen, or become very fluent in reading Chinese - ahhh, one good use for reading Chinese, we have to tell Nigel and Shannon about this.

Just wishing for the baby to sleep is akin to rushing out to the store to buy the newest toy (not that I'm directly comparing a kid to a toy - notice I used the word "akin") and taking the batteries out immediately and watching it sit quietly. What weird behaviour.

We should be waking the little bugger up, throwing balls at him/her, bringing him/her to visit the neighbours and after that, going to Challenger to check out the latest IT gadgets together. That's what having a child is about. Abound, abound!! No sleep!! Awake!!

Until either of you run out of energy. Probably you first.