Basic parenting 101: final exam

Section D: motherhood and sleep deprivation

Question D1
It's 2 am. Given a choice, is it preferable to be woken up by:
a. the sound of hubby snoring
b. a heavy thunderstorm
c. the shrieking of a 2 and 1/2 year old having an utter meltdown for no apparent reason

Hold on, this should be easy. This is what happened last night. Now what was it? What woke me up?...definately not hubby's snoring as the shrieking woke him up too. Rain? Thunder? But hold on, shrieking child? Maybe that is preferable to the drumming, relaxing, sleep inducing rhythm of rain on the iron roof...I don't know...oh, now I'm just so confused. I should have had more coffee this morning to make up for the lack of sleep. 4 cups of triple shot espresso obviously wasn't enough. Bugger, now I need to pee. I shouldn't have thought about coffee. Maybe if I just put my head down for 5 minutes and have a nanna nap, I'll remember those blurry hours...but I can't cos now I really need to pee.
I'll go (c) That's what you pick for multiple choice when you don't know the answer, right?

Question D2
46 minutes later, are you:
a. in bed with your eyes screwed up tight and a pillow over your head to drown out the noise
b. watching the lightening out the window of the lounge room at the other end of the house
c. sitting next to angst ridden child, avoiding the flying paraphenalia that is being thrown in your direction, avoiding the attempts of said child to rake her fingernails down your face, losing your hearing due to the ongoing high pitched screams.

Ah, I know this one. After 5 minutes of (a) not working, you go for (c). Because as much as you know that you are going to be exhausted in the morning, that little person just needs to know that someone cares about her and her problems. And when she has worn herself out to the point of exhaustion, still hiccuping from her crying, it is your job to work out that she wants the ribbon from pink Bear's neck to be tied around Bear's waist just like the tie on the dressing gown that your daugher is wearing so that they match.

(And, please, sir- may I have a bonus point or two for interpreting a physically exhausted, emotionally drained, essentially non-speaking child's charades with her teddy? Especially as I think my eyes were closed at the time.)

Well, 50% is a pass isn't it?

Especially when it comes with a little smile from an exhausted, flushed face as you say goodnight for the 4th time at 3am.
Better than a gold star any day.