I’d like you to meet my friend Jeff. We have been colleagues for the last 5 years and its been pretty cool to watch him grow from a young man to a big ol’ real man. Not only is he a News Director of a busy newsroom he is also a blogger, fiance and Daddy. And he is totally sleep deprived!
As the father of a little 7-month old girl, I have learned a lot of things about kids in a hurry. Things like the differences between a Size 2 and a Size 3 diaper, how to properly swaddle a baby and which baby formulas actually taste like breast milk as opposed to tasting like something that angers little babies.
But I’ve learned that the new information isn’t just about things my daughter needs and the tools of the trade when it comes to our kids. There are new things that we learn about ourselves as parents too.
Take the term “Baby Brain” as an example.
Ever since my daughter became a reality in my life, I have seen this term thrown around like crazy. I still don’t know exactly what it means. All I’ve taken from it is whenever a new Mom or a Mom-to-be makes some sort of dumb mistake, they say “Whoops! Baby Brain!” and all is forgiven.
Forget to throw in the soap before starting a load of laundry? BABY BRAIN!
And if you set your alarm for 8 PM instead of 8 AM? Well, that’s gotta be Baby Brain!
So after about a year and a half of hearing this term, I got to thinking… Maybe Baby Brain is not exactly Mom-specific.
Maybe there’s a form of Daddy Brain out there as well. I mean, that would make total sense, as I seem to do absent-minded stuff all the time!
Forget to close the lid to the container of baby wipes? That’s clearly Daddy Brain!
Didn’t pick up a refill of baby formula or Diaper-Genie bags on your way home from work? Don’t blame me, that’s Daddy Brain!
Turn on the wrong element on the oven and melt a plastic dish that just happened to be sitting there? Well, that’s just stupid… but DADDY BRAIN!
So the Daddy Brain excuse has become an ingrained part of our regular household lives… That is, until the situation I was in the other day.
I was already late for the morning shift at my work, so I was clearly running around like a chicken with my head cut-off. I got up, fed my daughter her bottle, put her back to bed and drove off for the 20 minute commute to work. When I got there, I hopped out of my car, locked the door and made it to the door to my office when I realized I didn’t have the key to unlock the door to the building.
But that didn’t make any sense, because the office key is on the same key-ring as my car keys.
That’s when I turned around and realized that my car was still running… with the keys trapped inside.
Sigh…
After a quick call for a tow truck and an hour of waiting later, I was 50 bucks down the drain.
When I went home and explained this situation to my wife and why our money is that much tighter until pay day, her reaction was just a simple question…
“Daddy Brain?”
Feeling incredibly sheepish, I muttered, “Yeah, let’s go with that.”
Daddy Brain, an excuse for everything.
BIO Jeff Johnson is a Canadian journalist and the co-owner of http://GameNTrain.com, a gaming and fitness website. He was born in Ontario, but moved to Kimberley, British Columbia to learn what it’s like to be attacked by deer on a regular basis. Between reporting the news and raising a young family, he tries to play some video games or maybe go to the gym every now and then. You can find Jeff on Google+ at http://www.gplus.to/jeffjohnsongnt or on twitter @broadcasterjeff.