Being a parent comes with lots of struggles. These beings have complete trust that you will do what’s best for them. They believe that you love them. They hope you will always be there for them. Parenting is hard work. Like really hard work and here are some reasons why it’s so difficult.
Related: Postpartum Recovery
Decision Fatigue
You have to make decisions all day long. There are decisions about what to feed your child, when to show your child grace and when to be strict. You decide how you speak to your child, or if you will give them more screen time and everything in between.
It Never Stops
You are always a parent and will always be a parent. When you go to bed at night you are still a parent and when you wake up you are a parent. From the moment your child is conceived until the moment you die you will be a parent. Your 30 year old will call you up and ask you how to cook their favorite dish and you are still their parent.
Expectations
Friends, family, and that random person you’ve never met on the internet all have expectations of how you should raise your child. Everyone has their two cents on what you should do for teething, for punishments, for schooling, for birthday parties. It’s hard to ignore some of those expectations and decide for yourself how you are going to raise your child. You may be second guessing your choices.
Responsibility
You are completely responsible for an entire human life. How much more responsibility can you ask for? You are the provider and emotional support for a small person who struggles with managing their life and looks to you for support with everything.
Mental Exhaustion
You have to use your mind a lot as a parent. You have to think about how your actions are perceived and how they will impact your child. There’s all the things you have to remember to do like change a diaper and eat.
Physical Exhaustion
You chase your kids, feed your kids, clean up after your kids, do everything for your kids. It’s physically exhausting to care for another human being. Not to mention the lack of sleep before your baby is born, compiled with the lack of sleep once the child is born and then the accumulation of sleep loss that occurs for the next 18 years.
Related: Meal Prepping Before Baby 3
Emotional Exhaustion
The kids are learning how to manage their emotions and they learn from watching you. They don’t know how to handle the big emotions they feel but they will watch you and see how you handle your big emotions. You will likely become exhausted emotionally from caring for these overly emotional beings and holding it together for them. There are lots of high highs and lots of low lows with parenting.
But in the end you have these small faces that look up to you. You have these small arms that wrap around you in a tight hug. There’s these tiny hands that grasp your fingers. Arms reach for you while tears fall down their faces after a tumble off a chair. They change their minds a hundred times about what the desires of their hearts are but yet nothing will change your mind on how much you love and care for them.
