"Up All Night" - A Rookie Parent's Review

My daughter was born 4 months ago. If you ask Babycenter she is exactly 18 weeks and 4 days. (I am still wondering when they will start counting minutes.) When my husband and I heard about the new series “Up All Night” starring Christina Applegate, we were excited enough to actually stay up until 10 o'clock to watch it. How could we not relate? My husband is a successful financial advisor and works out of our home. He watches our daughter during the day. I just returned to work here at NFI and when I am not here I run a children's photography business. We are busy...we tag team parent and we devote everything to our daughter while still trying to find that elusive balance. As rookie parents, a 30-minute comedy about sleepless nights and new parenthood after we had finally put our own daughter to sleep seemed right up our ally.

During the premier, there were many laugh-out-loud moments that had us nodding our heads in agreement, or rather empathy... For example, there have been many-a-times at the grocery store where we have avoided that one person who insists on touching our child or telling us how she is just so cute...and you meet that person in every single aisle. “Yes…I know my kid is cute…you told me in Aisle 2, 5, and 7 already…Can you leave me alone so I can get the things I came here for before she stops being cute and starts screaming bloody murder?” Also, we just celebrated our anniversary and counted exactly how many hours we had until she woke up and we contemplated turning in early. In the end, we didn’t turn in early and she woke up 15 minutes after we went to sleep. And for the best line of the night seen in all the previews “We're on your side!!" Our daughter just discovered her toes...and trying to change a baby who insists on having her toes in her mouth is pretty much impossible! Really they do seem stronger than us sometimes! In those 30 minutes, I probably laughed a good 15 minutes and, when you consider the amount of time taken by commercials...that is pretty good in my book.

BUT...yes, there is a but...I do have one complaint. It is this…Really??? Another video-game-obsessed, grocery-store-ignorant, irresponsible dad? Since I work out of the house and my husband and I rotate our hours to avoid daycare, I thought that maybe we could relate to the trials and tribulations of these characters more specifically, but my husband is far from sitting around waiting for me to come home. I know it is a comedy and it was an "equal opportunity offender" and poked fun of both moms and dads, but an out-of-touch dad who can only connect with a 4-month-old via video games? Come on NBC…you can come up with something more creative than that.

When you are talking about adjusting to life with a newborn...there is endless material. I know there are plenty of laughable moments in our household for a sitcom. Need an example...the many ways we were advised on getting an infant to sleep. Don't advise this personally, but I have been told a newborn strapped into a car-seat on top of the washer really does the trick. (We resorted to a bouncy at the bottom of our bed that sat between our legs so we could bounce it when she began to stir…worked like a charm.) Or how about the time when my daughter had reflux and had to be upright at all times? The astronaut-style contraption my husband created that included the miracle bouncy and the side of the entertainment center was literally out of this world. Add the working mom into the mix…how about breast feeding and working? Come on…trying to handle a pump, in work clothes in an office full of people who may or may not have children…comical. Rookie parenthood is clumsy, awkward, and down right hilarious…The supply of good material is endless and resorting to a couch potato dad as a primary character... just not necessary.

I will certainly keep watching. I especially appreciated the motherhood moments that had me laughing at myself, but I am definitely going to be hoping for two things for future episodes... One - that Will Arnette's character gets some credit as a dad and Two - the show moves to 8PM.