Explain SMBC — the wiki for Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

The Joke

A couple is dealing with the classic parenting dilemma: their toddler has fallen asleep in the afternoon. The father notes that if they don't wake him up now, the child will be up all night at midnight. The mother confidently says "Watch me," implying she has a plan to wake the toddler. She proceeds to make herself a cup of coffee or tea, settles in, and then in the final panels the toddler wakes up on his own -- screaming "WAAAAAAH!" at full volume. The mother's "plan" was simply to wait, knowing that the moment a parent tries to relax and enjoy a quiet moment, the child will inevitably wake up on their own, screaming.

The bottom text references this as a parenting survival tactic -- the comic plays on the well-known parental experience that children have an uncanny ability to wake up at the worst possible moment, especially when a parent is trying to enjoy a brief respite.

The Humor

The humor comes from the universal parenting truth that toddlers seem to have a sixth sense for disrupting any attempt at peace and quiet. The mother's confident "Watch me" sets up the expectation that she has some clever trick, but her actual method is simply exploiting the reliable pattern that the moment you sit down with a hot beverage and try to relax, your child will start screaming. It is a joke built entirely on recognition humor -- any parent who has lived through the toddler years will immediately identify with this scenario.