5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Had Kids
Whether you’ve had kids yet or not, we've all heard the cliché stuff already, and perhaps you've even said them yourselves.
From the doomsday-type premonitions of "Your life is about to be over!" (how is that EVER helpful?) to the equally nonsensical "Get your sleep in now!" as if sleep was something that’s stored in a bank or a well that you can pull from later (you can't by the way, I haven't slept in like 4 years), it’s one of those things you say to new parents, like how you heard “how’s school?” from literally every person you ever saw while you were in college.
Small talk is small talk, I get that. But I do wish that these “new parent-isms” we spit out at these folks were a bit more helpful.
Let’s kick this thing off by saying I’m not a parenting expert by any means. I'm still figuring this shit out shit out myself and taking it day by day. I'm a mom of two—my son is 3 years old and my daughter is 7 months old. You can tell I'm a second-time mom because first-time moms will tell you their baby's age in weeks while I'm like "Ummm... she was born in March?” Anyway. I wouldn't consider myself a great parent either, not even by a long shot. Parenting doesn't come super natural to me, and I'm not a kind mom. You know the one, she has a soft voice and always smells like soap. I also never thought that I was a yeller but turns out, I can compete at the Olympic level, yelling “WHAT DID I SAY ABOUT SCOOPING OUT WATER FROM THE FISH TANK." So there's that too.
With all that said in a very JA way to qualify my validity, I can still say with confidence that I have picked up a thing or two in our journey of parenthood. Here's my list of 5 things I wish someone had told me before I dove in head first, knees deep in baby shit (both figuratively and literally).
