Recently Ian put me on the spot and asked… what’s the worst thing about being a parent?
Hmmm… it’s exhausting for sure. It’s constantly doing (and saying) the same thing, over and over again. The endless buzz of horrible TV shows with annoyingly voiced pigs, lemurs and unidentifiable animals can really give you a headache. Stepping on a lego. Asking, “Why is this wet?” and “What’s that smell?” and never knowing the answer (though we don’t really want to anyway). Making a meal only to have it rejected, folding all the laundry only to have them dump it out to find a favourite shirt, vacuuming right before they tread right over that carpet with dirty shoes.
You’ll get no sleep when they’re little, and by the time they’re big enough to actually sleep through the night without becoming desperately thirsty or suddenly certain of a monster in the closet, you’ll have a new reason not to sleep: worry. Are you doing this right? Do we need to have “the talk”? Are they really listening to the “clean” version of Gucci Gang?
This is just the tip of the iceberg of the endless list of “bad” things about parenting. But after thinking about it all day, I know that the most difficult part is knowing that it’s all temporary. The WORST thing about parenting is that one day, we won’t be so lucky to pour their cheerios and hold their hand to cross the street. One day, they won’t want us to play ponies and lay with them until we fall asleep. Little by little, the little slips away. And while that is the goal of parenting, it is definitely the hardest part of being a parent!