Ratings Inspired by John Green's The Anthropocene Reviewed
Like many of you, I have been enjoying the Read Across Lawrence, opens a new window community read, The Anthropocene Reviewed. Despite being a long-time John Green fan, I never actually read this when it came out, so reading it this year has been a delight! Beyond just loving his musings on different aspects of the Anthropocene and deciding to give Diet Dr. Pepper another shot, it inspired me to write this similarly styled blog about maternity leave, which I was on between July and October of 2025.
Maternity leave, paternity leave, or parental leave — however you decide to call it — is a much-needed time off from work to bond with your new baby and get used to the new normal of your life. It was a wonderful time that went too fast and too slow at the same time. Since it was my first baby, it was mostly a time full of anxiety and chaos. Both my husband and I kept thinking, “Oh my gosh! How do we keep this little baby alive!?!” Now, six months later, (Wow, we have a six-month-old!) He's doing great and is working really hard to crawl. As for maternity leave, it is a time now past but a time I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. While most days bled together, some standout moments broke up the monotony. Here is my attempt to rate and review some of these things on a five-star scale.
Silly Little Coffees
I stopped drinking coffee when I was pregnant because I chose to get my limited amount of caffeine from Dr. Pepper (my biggest vice). Because of this, I had a lot of ground to cover (there's a coffee joke in there somewhere), and when you’re heavily sleep-deprived with a newborn, caffeine is a must.
Enter my obsession with silly little coffees. I could not — and still can not — get enough of them. Going on a diaper run? Silly little coffee. Heading to work after dropping my son off at his Mimi’s? Silly little coffee. Heading home from the pediatrician's office? Silly little coffee. It is never hard to convince myself that I deserve a fun treat for being productive. Plus, we love supporting a local coffee shop, and there are so many good ones!
I tried my best to make silly little coffees at home, but without accessories and syrups, I was limited on what I could do. Plus, most mornings, I really only had time and energy to pour a cup and toss in some creamer to get my fix, I got a lot of mileage out of my vast Star Wars mug collection. Perhaps someday I’ll become well-versed in making my own wonderful iced coffee drinks.
I give silly little coffees 4.5 stars.
How I Met Your Mother
I remember How I Met Your Mother very fondly from my time watching it in high school and college, but I hadn’t given it a watch since and was afraid it wouldn't hold up. (Spoiler alert: it didn’t). This particular time watching it came with some major changes, I now have a child and am in the last year of my twenties, solidly putting me in the age group of the characters for the first time. I don’t know if you’ve ever experienced the weird existential dread that comes with rewatching a show from years past where you are now suddenly either older or the same age as the characters. It’s like you’re being confronted by both your past self and your current self simply by watching a TV show. You’re also having to face the fact that you used to think these characters were so mature and old, while they are neither of those things. It’s just too much to unpack at once.
While my life has changed a lot, there are two common threads between these two versions of myself: the late-night Netflix binge and the fact that I still hate the ending to this show (which I won't be addressing further since that would take too much time). Through all of those 2 AM feedings — which were brutal at times — because I was watching How I Met Your Mother, it felt like I had been transported back to my college apartment watching Netflix in the middle of the night. Pretty soon, I was looking forward to those feedings. It was joyous, just me, my baby, and the light of the screen playing How I Met Your Mother. Sometimes good things do happen after 2 AM.
I give HIMYM 3 stars.
Coheed and Cambria at Red Rocks
I have long loved Coheed and Cambria, which generally shocks people because I am also a devout Swiftie. I consider the two of them to be my favorite musical artists of all time. My love for Coheed goes back to a burned CD mishap in my sister's car when I was in 5th grade.
For me, listening to Coheed is a family affair. We once went on a sibling road trip to Salt Lake City when they skipped KC on a particular tour. It also doubled as an excuse to visit several National Parks along the way. When Coheed announced their concert at Red Rocks in September 2025, I thought the stars were aligning just for me. Not only would I be 2 months postpartum (perfect time to do a mini trip away from baby), but I’d long dreamed of seeing a concert at Red Rocks. And what better band to see than your favorite? So we got tickets and made plans for our trip out to Colorado.
It was magical! And not just because I got three nights of uninterrupted sleep for the first time in months. Peak community really is screaming “man your own jackhammer” with a couple thousand people — who in that moment are not strangers but your closest friends. I will never tire of this feeling, and I’ve seen Coheed live eight times, so that’s saying a lot. Live music is a boon for the soul, and pairing that with the atmosphere at Red Rocks is an experience I will treasure for the rest of my life.
The trek into the amphitheatre two months postpartum was rough for a Kansas girlie, but the end results were well worth the loss of breath and the embarrassing number of stops on the way up. The concert was magnificent and everything I hoped it would be. A real dream-come-true event that only would have been better had they played "Time Consumer."
I give Coheed at Red Rocks 5 stars.
Medical TV Shows
I watched a lot of television during maternity leave. The TV was constantly on in the background from pretty much the minute I woke up to the minute I went to sleep — sometimes even while I was asleep. My husband and I had shows we watched together and shows we watched apart. The first show we watched together was House, which I’d never seen and he loved growing up. It was a fun watch and really just made me want to watch Grey’s Anatomy, so that's exactly what I did.
I started by catching up on the four seasons that had been released since I last got the old Grey’s itch. I really wasn’t planning on doing a whole rewatch, but once I caught up I just needed more of Grey Sloan. This not being my first rodeo, I gave myself permission to skip episodes and storylines I loathe, which led to me skipping a large portion of the first 3 seasons. It was the right call when watching a now 22-season medical drama. House led to Grey's, which led to Private Practice, which then led to The Pitt, and now I’m fighting watching ER.
I’ve always loved and hated medical dramas. I find them endlessly fascinating, but they also make me a little queasy from time to time. I do this thing where I can’t help but empathize with the medical issue happening to a character, and it usually ends with me feeling sick and woozy. Now there's an added layer with a new baby because lots of these shows love to have sick child storylines that really hit hard when you are physically holding a tiny sleeping baby and desperately afraid of something bad happening to them. But hey, maybe that’s just the first-time parent jitters.
I give medical TV shows 4 stars.
The Terminator
Those first few months of my son's life were characterized by not knowing what time it was or even what day of the week we were on. Our schedule was entirely dictated by a tiny human. In fact, it still is. One thing we tried to do was watch a movie every night. We took turns picking the film based on whose night it was to get up with the baby and be “on call.” When it was one person's turn to pick, the other could not say no. I made my husband watch all five Twilight movies, and he made me watch the first two Terminators.
While I knew the plot of The Terminator, I had never actually seen it, and apparently, this was some kind of movie-watching sin. I don’t really know why The Terminator stands out so prominently from all the films we watched over those couple of months, but it does. It’s not the greatest movie I’ve ever seen or even the most memorable. It was good, just not really my thing. I’m glad I’ve now seen it, but I’ll probably never watch it again. I will always have the memories of watching The Terminator and reveling in the joy of our new little family though.
I give The Terminator 3.5 stars.
Overall, maternity Leave was good to me. While too short, I’m grateful I got any at all and will treasure the time I got to spend with my son and husband as we figured out what we were doing as parents. I feel very strongly that all parents should get the opportunity to take those first few months with their new baby and worry about nothing but caring for their family. It really does make a difference, and as a society, we should prioritize that more.
I give maternity leave 5 stars.
—Mary Leibold is a Cataloging Assistant at Lawrence Public Library.
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