Hacker News Reader

Comment by jsharpe | Hacker News Reader

This reminds me of babies. A lot of people assume that changing diapers or sleep deprivation is the hard part of having a baby. For me, though, the hard part is actually just that babies are kind of boring, and the boringness of having to watch them constantly grinds you down.

That definitely wasn't what I was expecting to be hard when considering whether to have a baby.

(Fortunately they get more interesting over time.)

View on HN

The trick I think is to remember that while they don't say or do much, they're listening. So you can talk to them a lot. Tell them you're entire life history. Ask them questions about the meaning of life. Lots of fun to be had, if you're not dying from lack of sleep.

Sleep deprivation was definitely the most common thing mentioned amongst my friends.

A close second though was definitely the boringness of watching them constantly. My best friend said his showers and time on the toilet are 2 - 3x longer as it's his only respite.

My kids aren't that old yet, but "interesting" is a still a good description. The world through the eyes of a 3 year old is pretty comical.

Dinosaurs? the best thing in the world. We don't have enough toys, books, and videos even available to us to satisfy. Toy tools? he's "fixing" everything. Usually with brute force. Toy pliers broke, so toy saw was tried and found to be a far superior tool for everything. It is a better hammer, better wedge, better saw, and better chisel than any other piece of plastic in his arsenal.

Then again, the level of intelligence is hilariously lacking. I mean, he's 3, what do you expect? Either way, you have to choose your activities carefully so that you can watch them without becoming a sleep-deprived under-stimulated zombie.

I haven't heard yet that babies are boring, but I can imagine it's the grind that is the worst part.

My mum has always said that babies are boring. Not uneventful, but boring.

For the first few months all they do is eat shit and sleep. Literally.

Shit has no nutritional value- it's just breastfeeding or formula for the first few months.

"boringness of having to watch them constantly". My third child is 2 and he is not boring. He is very creative. I think the problem is "watch them constantly". This is a source of frustration for us as parent (we have so many other things to do) and not good for them (not socializing). I think it is useful to delegate to nursery and to be available to play with our children when they are back home.

OP said babies not children. Speaking as an outsider babies are pretty boring for the first year or so.

Maybe this is "horrible", but can't you just use some kinda leash? Let's say you leash the baby, within your field of view obviously, then you do whatever you feel like.

LOL. Babies have an amazing ability to end themselves even without adding robe-like object to the mix.

Maybe use some form of rope that can not bend fully enough for them to strangle themselves with?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com