This post make no sense at all. How can you choose to parent at night or not. If you are a parent you are a parent 24/7, so be default you are always parenting at night.Unless of course you have a SigO or nanny to take the night shift with sick kids.

MPer - Thanks for commenting. If you watch This Is Us, you’ve seen lots of nighttime parenting recently. Jack is transitioning his kids from their cribs to beds. Rather than just bringing each kid back to bed when they wake up, we see him take time to parent them...he gets down to their level, looks them in the eye, listens to their concerns and then tries to solve the problem.

Your comment reminded me of the book All Joy and No Fun. Jennifer Senior talks about the word “parent” being used as a noun vs a verb. One may be a parent 24/7, but you can choose when you are actively parenting and when you are not.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1986-06-15-8602130051-story.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/27/books/jennifer-senior-studies-parenthood-in-all-joy-and-no-fun.html

This reminds me of many times it took two of us parents to look after our sick kids overnight. We were awoken one night to the sound of a child being violently sick in his bed, he was still mainly asleep, but he had it in his hair, all over his night clothes, his bedding, the floor and even part of the wall. It took one of us to clean up the child by running the bath and carrying the sick child to give him a complete bath at 2 am while the other stripped the bed and put everything into the washer including the night clothes and teddy bear. Then came the hunt for somewhere clean for him to sleep, surrounded by towels and a basin in case of more, an old comforter to wrap him in. Then the scrubbing of the carpet and wall and bed frame with chlorox. I think it was a couple of hours before we got back into bed. At 7 am said sick child was up and jumping around demanding breakfast, none the worst for it.

We did have another issue with the same child a few years later when he didn't quite make it to the toilet before both ends let forth. Another messy situation that had to be dealt with by two of us although child was old enough to look after cleaning himself up and was able to get back into his bed surrounded by old towels and a basin. The chlorox and washer were busy again that night but I think it was less than an hour before we were able to get back to bed. This time the child remained unwell for the rest of the day.

Sometimes it takes two to look after one preschool child in the middle of the night and there is no choice in it. I don't care what name you want to give it, but being a parent in the middle of the night is par for the course.

Parent - Thank you for commenting and sharing your nighttime parenting stories!