Tuesday, July 5, 2016

What No One Told Me About Being a Parent


Guys, I'm going to level with you.  This is hard.  I had no idea that being a mom would be this hard.  Being a parent is an exhausting, demanding, often thankless job.

When I got pregnant with Katie, my oldest, I devoured every pregnancy book I could find and pored over stacks of books on parenting.  None of them even remotely prepared me for the reality of being a mom.  Sure, friends and family try to warn you what it's going to be like to have a baby, but until you are there, in the trenches, there's no way you can truly know. 

What No One Told Me About Being a Parent

No one told me just how much poop, vomit, and other body fluids I would deal with as a parent, a lot of it with my bare hands and a few baby wipes.



No one told me that I would learn to survive on 3 hours of interrupted sleep and still get up and keep the kids alive the next day.  And no one warned me that I would live like that for 6 months straight after my youngest child was born.

No one told me that the constant demands from four kids all needing something from me at the same time would be enough to make me want to curl up in a ball in a corner somewhere while my blood pressure skyrocketed.

No one told me that I would have to learn to swallow my pride and ask for help because it takes a village

What No One Told Me About Being a Parent

No one told me that I would cry when my babies got shots or how much my heart would ache when my 5 year old tearfully told me that kids on the playground were making fun of her beautiful but crazy hair.

No one told me about the endless messes that kids make or that they would repeatedly clog the toilet.

No one told me that there would be days when I would sit down to eat supper with Hubby after the kids went to bed and realize that it was the first time I'd eaten or even sat down all day.

And seriously...if someone had told me that I would have a medically complex baby with a feeding tube who would scream almost nonstop for his first 6 months of life, I would've run crying from the room.

When you read all of that, being a mom sounds awful.

What No One Told Me About Being a Parent

But here's the secret...no one tells you how your heart explodes with love when that tiny newborn baby is placed in your arms for the first time.  No one tells you that one ounce of the good stuff in parenting is so amazing that it cancels out 2 tons of the bad stuff.  No one tells you that no matter how hard it gets, you'll just keep on going and know in your soul that it is worth it

Honestly, no one could have told me because until I became a mom, there's no way I could've understood.


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What no one told me about being a parent. #thetruthcomesout @sunshineNspoons #momlife #parenting

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What's something you wish you would've known before becoming a parent?



 


This post is linked up at: 1. Cornerstone Confessions
 2. Sweet Little Ones Blog


11 comments:

  1. This is beautiful. I can especially relate right now to four kids needing you all at once. So challenging. Some days it seems like a revolving door of needs but it is so true, and I love e how you have put it, all the good cancels out the hard stuff. It is just such a blessing to experience the beautiful moments parenting brings.

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    1. I'm so glad you enjoyed reading this! {{hugs}} mama!!

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  2. Lovely post Hannah - so well said, honest and true. I don't think I would have believed anyone had they told me what parenting would really be like but I still would not have missed it for the world!

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    1. Thank you! Yes, it's always worth it, even when it's hard!

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  3. Being a mom is the hardest job you'll ever love. It's so, so hard! But so, SO worth it! And you see that too. Hang in there, gal! You're in the trenches, but the pay-off is HUGE!!

    Thanks for sharing with us over at Tuesday Talk - your pictures are adorable!

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  4. It's so true! What a beautifully written post. Thank you!

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  5. Hannah, I am loving your posts. You're so true. Keep up the good work! You're doing a great job as a mom when you can recognize the "mistakes" or the "harsh reality" of a mom's true situation. More than that, when you can accept it all and understand that all of those things are menial in comparison to the return of love you receive.

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  6. This made me smile in SOOO many ways! It's so funny, because just the other day, I was thinking to myself, "If you ask any mom what their most happy with in life, it's being a mom. Having kids. But then, you hear as an infant, mom never gets sleep. As a toddler, mom never gets a moment alone. As a 6-8/9 year old, mom needs new hearing from hearing so much jabber. Preteen... enough said? That means teenager, gosh those hormones. Then one is driving, leaving home for college." Its soooo good, its comical!

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