Scarlett is at her wit’s end, balancing a demanding career and a teething baby while her husband, Dave, sleeps peacefully with noise-canceling headphones. When he dismisses her pleas for help, Scarlett hatches a cunning plan to make him experience her sleepless nights.
I need to vent about something.
My name’s Scarlett, and I’ve been married to Dave for 25 years. We’ve got three kids: a 12-year-old soccer fanatic, an 8-year-old aspiring astronaut, and our newest addition, Lily, who’s six months old.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I love my kids to bits, but balancing a demanding career and raising these little humans is no joke.
Dave and I used to be this power couple. But lately, he’s been avoiding his share of nighttime baby duty.
Picture this: I’m pacing the room with a screaming, teething baby at 2 a.m., while he’s blissfully asleep, noise-canceling headphones on, listening to some darn calming ocean waves or whatever. It’s infuriating!
So, here’s the setup. It was one of those nights. Lily was teething and inconsolable. I’d tried everything—rocking, feeding, singing lullabies. Nothing worked. Exhausted and at my wits’ end, I shook Dave awake.
“Dave, I need help. Lily’s been crying for hours,” I pleaded, my voice barely masking my frustration.
He groaned and pulled off his headphones. “Scarlett, I have to be up early. My job is demanding. Can’t you handle it?”
“Seriously, Dave?” I snapped, feeling the hot sting of tears in my eyes. “I’ve been handling it all night. I need some support here.”
He rolled his eyes and turned away. “I need my sleep. I can’t function at work if I’m exhausted.”
That was it. The tipping point. His words stung more than they should have. I felt like I was drowning, and he was just floating by, oblivious. Something had to change. I couldn’t keep feeling this undervalued and alone.
That’s when I hatched my plan.
I’m not proud of it, but desperate times call for desperate measures. I decided to modify his precious headphones, planting a hidden speaker controlled by my phone. Yeah, it was sneaky, but I was desperate for him to understand my struggle.
I activated the speaker. The sound of a baby crying filled his headphones. He shot up, confused and irritated.
“Scarlett, did you hear that?” he mumbled, rubbing his eyes.
“Hear what?” I replied, feigning ignorance.
He shook his head and stumbled over to Lily’s crib.
“Dave, I think you’re just stressed,” I said, keeping my voice calm. “Maybe you should help with Lily more often. It might help you sleep better.”
He stared at me, and I could see the wheels turning in his head.
“Yeah, maybe,” he muttered, but the doubt was there.
By the end of the week, Dave was a wreck.
He was snapping at the kids, his patience worn thin.
“Scarlett, I don’t know what’s going on, but I can’t take this anymore. I’m hearing things, and I’m exhausted.”
I bit my lip, feeling a mix of guilt and satisfaction.
“Dave, we need to talk,” I said, my voice steady but filled with the weight of the past few nights.
He looked at me, his eyes bloodshot and weary. “What is it? Just tell me.”
One peaceful night, after a particularly calm evening with Lily finally asleep, we crawled into bed, both of us utterly exhausted. Dave pulled me close, his arm wrapped around me.
“Scarlett,” he whispered, his voice filled with gratitude, “thank you.”
I smiled, feeling a sense of contentment wash over me. “Thank you, Dave,” I whispered back. “For being my partner.”
KEEPING HOWIE IN OUR THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS
When it comes to Howie Mandel, the first thing that comes to mind is positivism and laughter.
According to IMDb, he started his career in showbiz by pure chance. A producer noticed him during an amateur night at the Comedy Store on the L.A. Sunset Strip during a vacation after his friends convinced him to try it out.
Today, Mandel is one of the most famous names in the world of entertainment. A TV celebrity, screenwriter, actor, producer, director, entrepreneur, and popular game show panelist/host, you name it, Mandel has tried it all and proved that he’s great in all of it.
Recently, however, he decided to open up about his mental state and confessed he’s been battling anxiety, ADHD, and OCD most of his life. The truth is that no one can really assume that someone as fun as Mandel could be going through such a thing.
“I’m living in a nightmare,” he declared. ” I work to ground myself. I love what I do and have a lovely family. However, I can also experience severe sadness from which I can never recover.”
This turned even worse during the COVID-19 pandemic when we were forced into lockdown. Mandel revealed to People magazine that there was no day the thought “we would die” didn’t cross his mind. But the fact that no one from his closest surrounding was affected gave him comfort.
Although he was diagnosed in his thirties, Mandal knows he had OCD and ADHD since forever. He, however, didn’t speak of his mental state openly because he believed it would affect his career. “My first reaction was that I’ve embarrassed my family,” he admitted. “Then I realized that nobody would hire someone who wasn’t stable. Those were my concerns.”
It was comedy that helped him during the toughest times in his life.
“My coping mechanism is finding the humorous,” he declared. “If I’m not smiling, I’m probably sobbing. And I’ve still held back on how horrible and dark it actually gets. In a way, comedy saved me. I feel very much at ease on stage. And when I have nothing to do, I retreat, which is not healthy
Mandel’s goal is to help raise awareness about mental illness and break the stigma.
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Bored Daddy
Love and Peace
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