This Sleeping Dad Comforting An Imaginary Baby Is All Of Us

We’ve all been there, buddy

Anyone who’s had a newborn knows that they’re (mild understatement) a lot of work. They’re so exhausting that your body will do anything to get just a little bit more sleep, and babies know this.

That’s how, as we see in this adorable YouTube video, they’ve managed to train us to respond to their every need…even when we’re unconscious.

In a video posted on Wednesday to America’s Funniest Home Videos’ YouTube channel, a dad hears his baby crying and goes into pat pat pat mode – all while remaining sound asleep.

This video makes us so, so happy, not just because it’s painfully sweet but because we’ve all been there. Who hasn’t whispered “Shhh shhh shhh” when our co-workers get too loud? How many of us have woken up from a nap after hearing a dog bark and said, “I’ll get the baby….” My kids are now nine and I still find myself doing the side-to-side bouncing the baby sway when I’m in line at the grocery store.

They get into us deep, those babies.

Based on how young this dad’s baby is, you can tell his body is at the point where it’s saying, “No, no, you keep sleeping. I got this. Just needs a little pat on the back, right? No problem. See? We’re sleeping and we’re helping the baby and we’re doing great.” I still remember waking up one night and seeing a bundled up burp cloth perched on my nightstand and thinking it was one of the babies. I thought, Huh, that’s weird. Seems pretty balanced, though. I’ll check on it again in a little zzzzzzzz…. Your brain is more responsible — your brain wants to wake up and check on the baby. But when you’re that tired, sometimes your body gives your brain a valium and a shot of whiskey and puts it to bed so it can try to handle things on its own.

The Huffington Post shared the video on their Facebook page, and a few parents shared their stories of unconscious parenting in the comments:

“I’ve kissed my baby’s head in the middle of the night, turns out it was my pillow. We didn’t even co-sleep, she was in her room!”

“When our twins were newborns, my husband heard one of them cry in the night and in his sleep deprived state, sat up, cuddled our comforter to his chest and started shushing it gently. The struggle is real.”

“I still remember rocking an empty pushchair for about 10 minutes till someone pointed out that my baby was being held by my husband.”

We think that Imaginary Baby needs to be a sitcom. Here’s an idea for the theme song:

“When you want to leave the house but suddenly you can’t,

It’s a ghost! It’s the dog! Or you’re not wearing pants!

Or maybe it’s the baby that you can’t see or hear,

The Imaginary Baby puked in your brassiere.”

It’s a work in progress.

We would love to read your unconscious parenting stories in the comments, for they make us laugh and laugh. (With you, of course, not at you. Well, occasionally at you. Not going to lie.)