When my eldest son was born I quit my job to stay home and take care of him.  Actually, I quit my two jobs.  In the year before I got pregnant I had two jobs and I was in graduate school.  I liked to keep busy.  I liked to use my brain and plan projects and talk to people and multi-task and go to the bathroom by myself and generally be respected. 

Babies have no respect for you.  They love you, need you, adore you, think they are extensions of you, but they have no respect for you.  They don’t care about your “me time.”  You can’t...