AS PART OF TheJournal.ie’s weekly Family Magazine, we wanted to create a space for parents to share their views. A place where mums and dads could share their experiences, lessons learned, and even mistakes along the way.
We’ve all done silly things when tired. When you’re pregnant, your body is working hard to keep yourself and the baby healthy, right? So everyday skills – like putting the ice cube tray in the freezer and not in the cupboard – can go out the window. That’s where the term ‘baby brain’ comes from… but ask any sleep deprived parent and they’ll tell you it extends far beyond pregnancy.
This week we’re asking our panel…
What’s been your biggest ‘baby brain’ moment?
Here’s what they had to say…
I forgot to put the brake on the buggy… on an open road: When my second child was a few weeks old, I got cabin fever and brought him and my 1.5 year old daughter out for a stroll. My daughter tripped during our walk, and as I tended to her the pram (and brand new baby) rolled onto the road. Thankfully it was a quiet road… with just one slow moving car and a bemused driver approaching us! It was a lesson well learned – the brake was constantly in use after that.
- Denise
My partner remembered everything except the breast milk: My partner called to a friend with our son when he was a couple of months old. She took the changing bag, nappies, wipes, change of clothes etc. She forgot to take a bottle of expressed milk (he was breastfed and I was the one doing the breastfeeding). So I got a phone call about an hour later asking me to come and provide his milk!
- Olly Keegan
I was convinced I’d left the keys at home: I can remember some really awful baby brain moments over the years. Sleep deprivation can make you look like a total nutter. I was getting the tyres changed on my car and looking for my keys to give to the mechanic. I couldn’t find them anywhere (they were in my hand), and got so flustered that I said to the mechanic, ‘I think I’ve left my keys at home.’ This made him laugh because obviously I had driven the car to the garage. He thought this was super funny and offered me a cup of coffee to wake me up a bit.
- Susannah O’Brien
I was so tired I reversed into a pole: My last ‘baby brain’ moment was only about a month ago. I was reversing into a parking spot and was wrecked after being up a lot of the night with Ellie Mae. I reversed into a pole… it cost me €300 to fix it.
- Denise Cumiskey
He took a dirty nappy to work with him: We have a family story of my wife’s uncle who was dealing with his daughter before heading off to work, changing her nappy, feeding her etc. The last thing he did before he left was grab the plastic bag with his lunch in it… or so he thought! At work later on, he realised he’d mixed up the bag and had actually brought his baby daughter’s used nappy to work.
- Ross Boxshall
I started crying after forgetting my wallet: When Clíodhna was about six weeks old, we ventured to our local town (about ten minutes’ drive away) to do a grocery shop. I packed everything for the journey: spare clothes, soothers (even though she didn’t like them), a teddy bear etc. I had just put Clíodhna in her buggy at the supermarket when I realized that I hadn’t packed my wallet. I had to put her, buggy, bag, teddy etc back into the car. She fell asleep on the drive home so after all that I ended up leaving the shopping for the next day. I was so tired I think I cried on the drive home!
- Ríona Flood
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