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10 Things I Realised When I Became A Parent
Before the children moved in, lots of parents we know told us that nothing prepares you for parenting. If I’m honest, I listened and nodded but felt slightly smug because I’ve worked with children for 10 years, so surely that would of prepared me.
My smugness quickly slapped me on the butt after a few days of them moving in.
Because it turns out, NOTHING PREPARES YOU FOR PARENTING!
So here are ten things I realised in
1) It’s continuous.
That sounds harsh but you just can’t imagine how continuous it is until you experienced it. You no longer have free time, to do what you want, when you want. My husband summed it up pretty accurately. After 1 day of looking after the kids by himself I asked him which was easier work or looking after the children, he responded ”Work” promptly and then said ”at work I can pee on my own and take breaks when I want to”.
2) I must have come across extremely patronising.
I’m a
3) Never say “I’ll never do that” before you become a parent.
You will in fact “do that” probably on the 2nd or 3rd day. Television is a great example, professionally I advised parents on how much TV children should watch! Said that I’ll never use TV as a
4) That Michael McIntyre’s sketch is so accurate!
Watch it before you have kids and then again afterwards!
5) That a support network is so important.
My Mum lives with us. We were all worried how the children would change the dynamics of us living together but
6) That I found it easier than I thought I would to switch from being an Early Years worker to a Mum!
I thought I’d struggle with this and might be too nursery nurse with them! Apart from instinctively wanting to record their temperatures and medication doses in the first few weeks. I am definitely their Mum and not their nursery nurse although the repertoire of nursery
7) That they can change their minds at any given moment about the simplest of things!
In a scenario I now call ”tomato gate”, Big Pig had agreed to eat something new for lunch! A pizza wrap.
I felt so proud that I was mixing up their diet of sandwiches and yoghurts. I added some tomatoes (which he eats regularly) and offered the dish to him. “Are those tomatoes?” He asked in disgust, “yes sweetheart, you like tomatoes”, he then turned the colour of a tomato and screamed “I
Very calmly I said “well you do, because you eat them all the time”. He then repeated in a slightly more screaming tone “I don’t like tomatoes!”
Now hindsight is a wonderful thing and I should have just cut my losses then, but I knew that he liked them, the wrap was all toasted together nicely, I’d made a lot of effort, so I continued to explain my evidence for the case that, yes, he did like tomatoes! ”But you eat tomatoes all the time in Pasta sauce, chilli and beef burgers.”
To this statement I
He returned (mightily quickly I might add) to his usual colour, and as he settled to eat his pizza wrap, I went in to the kitchen to take a deep breath as I counted down from 10 I got to 8 and he called out ”Mummy” he
8) That you will spend all of your time talking about your children.
I said before that I didn’t want to be one of those parents that only talk about their kids! Well it’s pretty difficult not to, because you spend all your time with them and have no time to do anything else!! Also you want to talk about them all the time because of the pride you feel in everything they do!
9) That you need the patience of a saint.
A saintly saint actually. I’ve lost mine on numerous occasions. Normally
10) That despite all my moaning being a parent is the most rewarding and beautiful thing I have ever done.
It is also by far the hardest thing I’ve ever done. But the bond we have