Dog versus Baby; Mommy versus Dad

Ellie says, "Mommy, the baby took my spot."  Mommy says, "I'm sorry, puppy, but she can take a lot more than that, if it will only keep her quiet."

Miss Kavya has been rather unrelentingly demanding the last two days.  We figure she's a little sick, or teething, or gassy.  Pretty much the only time we get a break from carrying her is when she's napping -- otherwise, there are the howls of outrage, the wails of heartbreak.  So we pick her up.  And when I say we, I mostly mean me, because Kev's got a really busy work week, lots of admin work interviewing department job candidates and such, in addition to his teaching.  I'm grateful that I have no admin work this year, but it does raise an interesting question -- what's more frustrating?

 

a) Reading through yet another in a stream of sad applications from folks who aren't actually qualified for your posted job but who are applying anyway because they're desperate?  When you know that odds are that your department's funding for the position you listed may well be yanked before you can actually offer the job to anyone anyway?

b) Hour seventeen with cranky baby?

In other words, which of us is most deserving of sympathy at the end of the day? :-)

P.S.  I should note that I made up example a) above, based on hiring situations I've seen in the past in my own departments; I actually have no idea what kind of applications Kevin's reading, or what his department's job application status is.  Maybe it's all sunshine, wine, and roses in his department, with plenty of money to cherry-pick the best of a horde of brilliant candidates.  That would be nice.

Cross-posted to An Ongoing, Erratic Diary