Some things, like washing dishes or weeding, can be done using only half a brain. I’ve really come to appreciate that since becoming a mommy. Partly, this is because I often only have half a brain to spare, but that was true before baby, too. What really brought this home for me was having a psychic baby.

Oh, she wasn’t an unusually psychic baby, just your run-of-the-mill psychic baby. I’ve asked some of my fellow mommies about this and, for the most part, they seem to have expected to give birth to psychic babies. Me? I was taken by surprise.

I would hold my newborn in my arms, rocking her gently and staring deeply into her eyes. I felt the love, and she was my world. But the second my mind wandered off and began daydreaming or making a list of things to do today, well, that’s when my psychic baby would give me a kick.

“Hey! It’s all about me!”

“Ooops, sorry, Princess Psychic Baby. I forgot for a millisecond.”

From what I hear, some dads have experience this, too. Here’s a story a local dad recently shared.

He had just moved to Lawrence from California, where he was an avid surfer. Driving along downtown with his baby in the backseat, he began daydreaming of leaving behind his responsibilities and heading back to the coast. He pictured himself on the beach, he saw the killer waves. He was riding a killer wave, he was …

“Daddy, you not go to ocean!” his son commanded from his throne … err … baby seat.

Yep, kids demand our full brain, and they know when they’re getting it and when they’re not.