When I leave my wife alone with our two kids, there’s always that question:
Will anything happen while I’m gone?
I don’t mean in the tragic sense—I’m not so inveterate of a worrier—I mean more in the pedestrian sense. As in, will the baby wake up? will the toddler have a meltdown?
That momentary uncertainty leads to what I think of as Schrödinger’s childcare. I’m out in the world, away from the family, and I have no idea what’s gone down (or not gone down) at home.
The not-knowing is refreshing for that reason: nonsense may or may not be happening at home—and it’s not until I’m back that I find out what has happened in my absence.
Taylor Coe 