I’ve realized that I have become a lazy parent. Something happens to you when you have your second child. You realize that all those things that you thought were SOOO IMPORTANT in your first child now seem strangely optional.

I was quite the schedule Nazi with Lucy. Breakfast was at 7:00, nap was at 1:00, snack was at 3:00, dinner was at 5:30 and bed time at 8:00. And woe is he/she who tried to disrupt my schedule. The funny thing about this is that Lucy did well with this because well, she’s her mother. A type-A, OCD, structured, rule-following project management type who falls into hysterics if anybody messes with the repetition of her life. My mother actually wrote in my baby book “likes routine and would wear the same clothes everyday if allowed.” I think the line in Lucy’s baby book will be “loves routine and would eat the same food everyday if allowed.”

Max is different. And so I find myself letting things “go” that I never would have allowed with Lucy. First and foremost is bed time. Somehow between David working late and daylight savings time the kids bedtime has gone from 8:00 to 9:00. I’ve always insisted that Lucy sleep in her own bed but now she comes into bed with us every night at 1:00 a.m. and sleeps there the rest of the night.

The mommy-diet has kicked in as well. Now, I find myself eating leftover strawberries, green beans, PB&J sandwiches, and macaroni and cheese as I clear the table. In fact, I’ve stopped making my own lunch and just eat off the kids plates.

The list really just goes on from there. They don’t brush their teeth everyday, they don’t ALWAYS wash their hands, I let them eat food off the floor, Max frequently spends the day with a variety of food and snot on his face. And yes, I buy them an ICEE at Target EVERY TIME we go.

This is the thing though, once Max came along I had to really decide how I wanted to spend my energy and arguing over an hour difference in bedtime and wiping snot off Max’s face just no longer seemed crucial. Lord! I hope nobody reports me to CPS.