Parenting – the most difficult yet rewarding job in the world. Once that little person comes into your life, your whole world gets turned upside down – literally!
We found these great comics by Grant Snider of Incidental Comics that we think perfectly sum up what a year of parenting is like. Enjoy!
This is hilarious – and so true! Gone are the days when you come back home after work, cook a nice meal with your partner which you may choose to eat with the music of your choice playing in the background.
After dinner, you put your feet up and relax together till it’s time for bed. All at your own pace of course.
Enter kids into your life. Your whole day revolves around them. Your day is divided into ‘times’ – naptime, mealtime, playtime and so on. Gone is the soothing music playing in the background during mealtimes.
It’s now replaced with shrill voices singing nursery rhymes from Baby TV or the Hotdog Song from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (parents – admit it, you know the lyrics by heart!) depending on how old your kid is.
Peaceful mealtimes…what are those? More like a mini battlefield with liberal splatterings of food on the table, highchair, your clothes, the walls, the ceiling!
And then there are the never-ending risks that seemingly innocent household items pose once junior comes along. Who knew that your toddler would find soap (but not that yummy home-made meal you made) so delicious?
The bathroom (especially the toilet bowl) holds wonderful mysteries that must be explored by your curious kid.
My boys just love climbing onto the toilet seat if they get the chance – one flushes the toilet non-stop while the other leans precariously over to the sink and opens the tap!
Plug-points are oh-so-tempting and that stack of books – hazard alert! Not even the pet is left alone – whiskers, ears and tails are so tempting to little hands and just beg to be pulled.
Goodbye Me-time?
Let’s talk about me-time now. Just say good-bye to it. For a very long time. Is cuddling up in bed or on your favourite comfy chair with a great book and a cup of hot chocolate just a distant memory? Of course, it is if you have kids!
No more Dan Brown or E.L James – bring on Eric Carle and Beatrix Potter accompanied by caterpillars with voracious appetites and talking rabbits dressed in waistcoats!
While you say good-bye to me-time, why not also bid farewell to your social life? Even if you do have a trusted baby sitter looking after your child, there are a million things to worry about and interrupt your romantic dinner date.
Has your child eaten? Has he pooped/vomited/peed on the couch? Is he watching inappropriate TV programmes while the carer is on the phone with her boyfriend? The list of potential disasters is endless.
Parenting is certainly full of fears and sometimes self-doubt. You can’t help but think the whole world is judging you when it comes to your kids – how you choose to discipline them, what you choose to feed them, even what you decide to dress them in – there will always be someone who has an opinion.
And it may certainly seem like your world has turned upside down, especially if you are a first-time parent.
So how do you get through all these challenges in one piece?
But in the middle of all the chaos that is the day, week, month or year of a parent, there are amazing moments that nothing else in the world but parenting brings to you.
Yes, you may not be able to read your favourite romance or thriller novel anymore. But nothing beats the feeling of having a tiny, warm body cuddled up close to you, listening to every word you read to them about the very hungry caterpillar.
No more long, fragrant soaks in the bathtub may now be your new reality. But to me, there’s nothing on earth that smells better than the milky-vanilla-honey-flower-petal smell of a freshly bathed baby.
And while you may not get any more I-love-yous from your hot date – there is a little person in your life now who loves you with a pure and whole innocence that is hard to find elsewhere in the world.
So embrace parenting. Yes there will always be someone to criticize how you bring up your child. But for each critic, there is also an admirer.
The first year is the toughest for many parents, but once you get past it, you will miss it so much! Kids grow up so fast – too fast – so enjoy every single precious moment with them.
Parenting is when ‘me’ becomes ‘we’ – and I’m sure you’ll agree you wouldn’t have it any other way!
Parents, do share with us your best parenting moments! Leave a comment, and let us know what they are.