There’s nothing more satisfying than being a mom but I would be lying if I said it didn’t come with its fair share of challenges. You can read all the books for parental guidance, ask your pediatrician a million questions, scout advice from veteran moms; but let’s agree upon the fact that every child is unique with different needs. What one person might swear by may not work in your case. This can cause a lot of worry and frustration. There is no one size fits all guide. If there was, all parents would be raising perfect kids and they would be a lot less stressed out. But truth be told: parenting is no walk in the park.
Parenting turns individuals into warriors. Cradling a crying baby while doing house chores, cleaning poop that’s been smeared all over the place, carrying your sleeping toddler while looking out for his belongings all take a lot of strength and courage. Most parents don’t even realize when they turn into warriors. However, by the end of their role as a new parent, they are pleasantly surprised to see just how much they themselves have transformed.
For me, parenting has been rather challenging. Sometimes I wish a day never ended and at other times I wish a day would be over even before it started. We all know those kinds of days – when you have your baby’s puke on your clothing, when your kid throws a tantrum in the middle of nowhere, when your teenager screams for no good reason and slams the door on your face. Those days are excruciating and they test you by pushing you to your limits. Yet, even on such days, we find solace in being a parent. That’s because at the end of the day, we cannot fight the unconditional love we have for our children. We hope things will not be this way forever and believe that everything will change for the best.
This realization however doesn’t kick in until your kids are asleep, you have a glass of wine in your hand and are reminiscing over how many times you raised your voice that day. So why does no one tell you how hard parenting is? You always hear how fun it is to be a parent, how rewarding it is to raise kids but nobody tells you just how tough it can be to get started on this journey. Of course, they tell you that you won’t be sleeping much or that you won’t have as much time to yourself but nobody reveals to you the actual dark side of parenting.
Don’t get me wrong. I enjoy being a mom and I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world but at the same time parenting is not all fun and games. Having to be the disciplinarian is the worst challenge. You have to stay up all night with your teething baby and also be energetically present for your toddler on zero sleep through the day. Meltdowns anywhere are simply unacceptable. So yes, even though parenting is an amazing experience, it is extremely difficult.
In retrospect, nothing could have prepared me fully for the challenges I was to face as a mother. However, I wouldn’t swap my motherhood responsibilities for anything in the world because even on a bad day, I feel like I have evolved as a parent. My kids are a gift to me and the joy that fills my heart on a daily basis is immense. But it would be dishonest of me to say parenting is easy. So all you parents reading this post, please know that you are not alone. As parents, we experience good days and bad days. What we need to do is make the good days count so that there’s something to fall back on, on the not-so-good days.
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