Shared Experience of Parenting -- Part of the Thanks Giving Series

How wonderful is the shared experience of parenting that it can make us breathe a giant sigh of relief when we realize someone else is a parent too. Like, oh thank GOD, they understand why I am wearing a T-shirt decorated with baby spit-up, sweatpants and a diaper bag.

Priceless is the moment you realize your shared experience renders you free to do things like speak in incomplete sentences so simple they resemble primitive hieroglyphics, a mutually understood shorthand language of the sleep-deprived parent.

When one parent says to another, "Teething," it is simply understood this means, "My poor baby is teething. She cannot sleep, bless her heart, so neither can I. I am here only to buy Infant Tylenol and large bags of coffee."

Wonderful is the fraternal order of parenting.