My Guilty Secret: Driving My Child to Sleep

Baseball season is here and that means He Who Must Be Ignored is away some nights. That also means that me and Captain Dom are on our own to explore the world, and by this I mean, kill time. It also means that our bedtime routine is a little bit goofy.

So I figure, if everything is out the window, why not make it easier for myself? So I put Captain Dom in our family car and head out, ostensibly, to "go swimming" which is code for, "get in the car, I hope you fall asleep before we get there."

Invariably, this leads to me driving around while we listen to Disney music with me looking in the rear view mirror more than is probably safe to do while driving hoping that Captain Dom will be asleep soon.

Invariably, he falls asleep. I rush home, transfer him to his bad, and rush out to the sofa so I can get to HBO on Demand and Sex and the City.

Is this cheating? It feels like it. I feel like if I don't "suffer" when he goes to bed, i.e. there's no battle about staying in bed, going to sleep, yada yada yada, then I didn't do my duty as a parent. Is it really wrong to put him to sleep like that or am I just doing what is best for both of us?

I choose to believe that this is alright. We're still working on our bedtime routine and we're being consistent when we do it. However, when ever the team is in town, He Who Must Be Ignored gets to head out to the ballpark for a game, and I get to drive Captain Dom to sleep.