How many of you headed into parenting with blinders on?
I did.
Moms/Dads how many of you played ‘house’ when you were little? I’m not sure about you, but my babies were sooo easy to take care of when I was young. And those ‘egg babies’ we had in middle school? Pfffft, what kind of preparation was THAT?! Moms, how many of you envisioned yourselves as being frazzled, overtired, and complete messes when you thought about what motherhood would be like? Dads, how many of you envisioned your wives as being frazzled, overtired, and complete messes? Think about that for a moment…
This parenting shit is not easy.
Let’s start with the obvious things that come along with parenting (the things you knew about but didn’t realize they were going to be so taxing on your mind, body, and soul):
- Kids need to be fed. Like all the time. They are never not hungry.
- Potty training. If you’ve been through this, I probably don’t need to say much more. But honestly, my child cannot decide if she wants to use the potty or not. The very thought of using the potty is sometimes terrifying to her, but other times she could sit on the potty all. day. long. Damn kid can’t make up her mind.
- Kids make messes. Lots of them. They also don’t seem to remember/care where to put stuff back when they are done with it. The whole clean house/spending time with your kids thing, yeah, I’m still working on that.
- If you want your kid to grow up to be a functioning adult you need to teach them. Alot. Eating, walking, talking, numbers, letters, and yes….even sleeping. (see below) This is not a one and done. You need to teach them little buggers the same things over and over (think 4371964 times) before they get the hang of it.
Now for the doozies that I was not aware of before having kids:
- Kids refuse to sleep. Naptime, bedtime, quiet time, etc, etc, etc. It doesn’t matter. If you are asking your kid to lay down and rest, you better be ready for an all out war. I think I would have an easier time convincing my toddler that she should eat dog feces off the floor. No, you know what, I KNOW I would have an easier time convincing her of that.
- Kids are nuts. Like literally, about nothing. If adults acted how children act, I’m pretty certain we would be admitted to an institution. They will throw tantrums and have complete meltdowns over the silliest things: you gave them the wrong color bowl, you ordered them a hot dog because that’s what they asked for but now they want grilled cheese, you looked at them the wrong way, you won’t let them drive the car….
- They can go from acting like the world is ending one moment, to acting like they are in Disneyland the next. Their attitude changes so quickly that you don’t even have time to keep up. I personally have a hard time to go from being screamed and kicked at for 10 straight minutes right into a cuddle session. One minute I’m the worst mom on earth and the next I am #1. Although, I will admit it is easier to go from awful to great than it is to go from great to awful.
So next time you feel like you’re alone in thinking that parenting isn’t easy, please remember there are other parents out there right now thinking they won’t be able to get through another minute with their kid(s). A mom is hiding in her bathroom, pretending to poop, just so she can be alone with Facebook and a piece of chocolate. At this very moment, a dad is cursing his child for completing exhausting every last ounce of energy that mom had (and tonight just won’t be the night). There’s a mom throwing her tearful self into bed, thinking she couldn’t be anymore of a failure. We’ve all been there. And I’m here to report that if you’ve EVER felt like parenting is a struggle, you must be doing something right. Parenting wasn’t meant to be easy. It’s damn hard.
And as hard as it is, the reward is ten-fold.
xo, Jess
