- I don't think it's that hard.
I think all you have to do is
feed them twice a day.
I don't know,
you water them.
Is that all you do with babies?
(baby screaming)
It will be okay.
(upbeat music)
Babies,
who needs them?
- Okay, whatever, sure.
Technically, we, like, need babies
To continue society.
Babies are super expensive,
they're very needy,
they're mean.
Sure, they're cute and all but,
they're kind of hard to work with.
What is it like to be a parent?
- I've always wanted to be a mom
and I just get the opportunity
to have someone, and raise her and love her
and pour everything into her.
- The one thing that makes me nervous about it,
are some of the challenges.
Babies throw tantrums.
- So, Sydney, she's 20 months now
and she's very independent.
She's really trying to find her way
around the world.
She can't fully articulate
what she wants a little bit,
but when she can't,
she cries.
Babies will let you know
when something isn't right.
- What do you think I'm going to struggle with?
- I think in the very beginning,
when I'm leaving,
she may wonder "where's mom?"
and she may cry around that time.
You know, you take the good
with the not so great and,
you just kind of roll with it.
I think the rewards far outweigh
the things that are stressful.
- Shaniqua going already.
- Yes, are you ready?
- I think so.
I get to leave work early
so that's a plus.
- You leave one job to go
to another job,
practice being a dad.
- Okay, well, any advice
before I do this?
- Just, you know,
it's not a sprint, it's a marathon.
- Okay.
Alright, so we just got Sydney.
Can you say hi, Sydney?
- Say hi, Sydney.
- Hi.
She's not interested in saying hi now,
but we're going to get her in the
car seat here.
- She may just drop in and sit
and be all compliant,
other times she is going to stand
and not want to sit.
It will take some time to get her in there.
- I was expecting her to be very frantic
because Shaniqua warned me that there
would be tantrums,
but it was super easy.
Sydney was very docile.
She was adorable.
She was super sweet.
I put her in the car, it was no big deal,
she got in...
Now we're going to go grocery shopping.
Okay.
She hopped in the cart,
it was super simple.
We were walking around.
We're going to go grocery shopping
You got it?
You okay?
So, Shaniqua got me this
handy dandy grocery list.
Sydney is being very good
and this is so far, so good.
She was a great helper.
Any time I handed her an item
she put it right back in the basket for me.
She was the best.
Do you like the raspberries?
Yes?
Awesome!
Good job, Sydney.
Do you like the mangoes?
Yeah?
Want to toss it in?
Good job! Alright!
Going into this,
I was like, I am not a baby person.
I think that they are very difficult,
but, this first hour with Sydney
was amazing.
I felt like,
I am the best dad in the world.
Then I tried to put her in the car
after the grocery store
and we had tantrum number one.
Okay, so we just left the grocery store.
(baby whining)
Sydney, it will be okay.
She's a little anxious,
I think she's ready to eat.
Alright, oh wait,
no, wait,
Sydney, you can't stand.
Wait, Sydney.
(baby cries)
Sydney, I know.
I know, but we have to get in the seat.
(baby wailing) Oh no,
oh my gosh.
Okay, Sydney,
I know.
We're going to have some snacks.
We're going to have snacks, okay?
(baby crying loudly)
I know, I know, I know.
She just started screaming and,
I couldn't get her in the car.
She was kicking to try to get back,
like, I don't know what happened.
Sydney was just not having it,
And I was, like, we've been together for two hours
and you're already doing the most...
Do you want a snack?
(baby screaming)
I had no idea what I was doing.
It's very frustrating,
because they can't communicate with you
so they're frustrated.
You can't communicate with them
so you're frustrated.
This was the first challenge where I didn't know what to do
and I was like, oh,
this is going to be quite the battle.
We're just now getting home,
Sydney, can we...
(baby crying)
can we go inside?
No? Okay.
Yep, this is tantrum two,
but it will be okay.
It will be okay, Sydney.
Sydney, we're going to wash our hands.
We're going to grab some soap,
(baby whimpers)
it's okay.
(baby cries loudly)
Can I have...
we're going to eat though.
(baby sobs)
I know, Sydney, it will be okay.
(baby screams)
I know,
I know, but can I wash...
I sit down and eat dinner with Sydney.
You want to start with the grapes?
That's okay.
It's okay.
I'm going to get some strawberries
ready for you, okay?
Enjoy it.
Let me know if you need anything.
Things move very quickly when you have a baby.
Toddlers they,
okay, okay, she needs me now.
Here we go.
Just had a little spill?
Say thank you?
I didn't realize how much of a mess
babies would be.
She just kind of kept putting her fingers in everything
and taking it off of her plate,
throwing it on the ground.
This is where I'm leaning back on the meter of,
I don't think kids are for me.
This getting ready for bedtime is
around 7:45?
- Yes.
- It's hard for me to go to sleep so,
I can only imagine a child,
- Right, right.
- Being like, no, I'm not doing this,
especially at 8:30,
that seems so early.
- I mean, it's early when you think about
all the other things you need to do.
Because at this point,
I've given you a list.
You haven't shared anything about you,
you haven't even gone to the bathroom yet.
- By this point,
it's about 7:00 and Sydney is full of energy.
She wants to run around and play games.
We sat down and had an adorable moment.
We had tea parties.
We read books.
We played with several different dolls,
but it was exhausting.
They're not letting up at all.
Sydney has so much energy,
she would play with a toy for two seconds,
run over here and jump
on the trampoline for two seconds,
run into her room,
and it was just like she was all over the place.
By this point, it's 8:30 and I've done,
literally nothing for myself.
You're tired,
She's clearly tired,
but she doesn't want to go to bed
and it's just, like,
the most frustrating thing in the world.
Alright, Sydney, ready to get dressed?
- Dressed!
- Let's do this.
Finally, Shaniqua has to come help me again
to get Sydney into her bed because,
she was not having it.
But, then I still have to clean up the dishes from Sydney.
I still have to make sure her meals
are ready for the next day.
I still have to get all of her clothes ready,
and I'm just, like, this is hard.
It's so hard.
(alarm beeps)
I set an alarm for six o'clock,
because I knew that Sydney usually wakes up
between 6:30 and 7:00.
I wake up and I don't hear Sydney crying,
so I'm like, perfect,
fine,
I'm going to go back to sleep
and then I sleep through my second alarm
and then I wake up and Sydney is ready to go.
She's ready for breakfast.
She's hungry.
She's running around.
She has tons of energy,
and I am like, how are we doing this?
It's Saturday.
All I want to do is be in my bed
and asleep until 3:00.
Woke up a little bit late for breakfast,
I started to make waffles
but didn't plug in the oven.
Good start.
We get Sydney's breakfast together.
We just cut up food.
I didn't realize how much babies eat,
like Sydney was just going at it
and then she was like, more,
more strawberries.
You just have to constantly keep going,
and keep thinking ahead.
We got breakfast started.
It looks like it's going well.
Did you drop these plates and the cup?
Why are you doing that?
One area that I really enjoyed
about being a dad for a day,
was getting to pick out Sydney's outfits.
I'm thinking like having her like North West.
I want her to look like little Blue Ivy.
I am super excited to pick out her clothes,
but I didn't think about the weather at first
so I pick out t-shirts
and Shaniqua is like, "No, you can't put her in t-shirts,
it's going to be 50 degrees tomorrow."
I forgot weather, and babies have
sensitivity to cold.
Okay, Sydney, it's time for music class
so we're going to take this so we can...
I know, I know.
But you can learn to dance and sing,
so we're going to turn this off for now.
Ready? Ready?
Okay, we're going to music class.
Sydney, do you want to play?
- [Woman] Pull and then you let go.
(banging on drum)
- [Man] I see you're playing, Sydney, I see.
- Thank you.
(giggles)
- Want to get the door?
Sydney falls asleep on the way back
from music class
and I just pick her up out of the car seat
and we have this really precious moment.
Oh, wait, nap time for one to two hours.
- Yes. - Great, so I get a nap.
- [Woman] You should, yeah.
You should.
- You keep saying should. - Yeah, because you
just never know.
You just have to be prepared
and don't bank on something happening
because it's very fluid.
It ended up being a mistake,
because Sydney wakes up 30 minutes later
and she's ready to eat.
She's like, "Where's my food?"
We woke up from a nap
and now we're going to have a little lunch.
We had a little mini-nap,
so we're going to have to take another,
longer nap after this.
Are you okay for nap time after this?
No, you're busy eating,
I don't know why I am talking to you
while you're eating.
Eating with Sydney is always an adventure.
All of her food wound up either
on her body or on the floor.
I hang out with Sydney for a little bit
and I keep trying to get her to go
back down for a nap.
I want Sydney to nap,
so I can nap,
but she's not giving me
any type of a break.
Since she didn't want to go to nap,
we just went to the park.
That's probably my favorite part.
Hang out with a toddler for 24 hours
and you really get to see how they see the world.
It was little moments like that,
it started to sit in in the last couple of hours.
It was like, this is the fun part of being a parent.
You get to relive your childhood through someone else.
You get to see how smart, and talented,
and cool your toddler is.
Where's Sydney?
Whoa!
- There are times where things will be easy and fun.
There are times when things will be a bit challenging.
You take the good with the not so great
and you just kind of roll with it.
I think the rewards far outweigh
the things that are stressful.
- Here we go.
This is so much easier than last time.
This is a major improvement.
I'm not that much of a planner
so, it's really hard to deal with a kid
who just completely needs you.
And you have to think about all the things they need,
on top of all the things you need.
It made me appreciate growing up so much,
and all the sacrifices my mom made for me.
It's a tough job and there are a lot
of people out there that want to do it,
I just don't happen to be one of them.
(upbeat music)
High five, maybe?
Alright!