Ten things you didn't expect about being a parent

Being a parent is a wonderful thing but no matter how well you think that you have prepared yourself for taking on parenthood, there’s always some things that take you by surprise.  Here is a quick round up of ten things that you didn’t expect about being a parent:

 1. Your concept of ‘luxury’ and ‘treat’ changes

All of a sudden little things become a real luxury or treat; drinking a hot drink, while it’s still hot, getting five minutes to yourself without someone asking you where something is, going to the toilet on your own. (At least it would be a treat if it ever happened…..) In some ways one of the (many) great things about being a parent is that you appreciate the little things more.

2. There’s no such thing as nipping to the shops any more

Back in your pre-child days, you could run out of milk, and just go and buy some more from the shops.  You discover that one of the less great things about being a parent is that you can’t quickly nip anywhere any more, every outing has to be planned with all manner of supplies and equipment to take both you and your baby to the local shop.

3. Sleepless nights are not just for newborns

Before I had children, I thought that you had a baby, had a few weeks of sleepless nights, maybe even a few months, and then all went back to normal. Ha ha ha ha ha! Being a parent has taught me to value sleep.  Even children that sleep through from an early age seem to be able to throw in the odd disturbed night here and there.

4. You can recite whole children’s books

I always thought I’d read to my children, and I knew that children often like the same stories over and over again, but I never expected to know some of them so well.  There are probably at least thirty children’s books that I could recite to you without looking at them.  I think the rhymes must help.

5. You spend far too much time talking about poo

I can honestly say that when I thought about being a parent before I had children, the idea that I might think about poo, let alone talk about it, never crossed my mind.  In those early days though you find yourself discussing the colour (is it yellow enough, do you think it looks green??) the texture (would you call that frothy?) the frequency (it’s been three days, surely that’s not right) and the volume (how can someone so small produce so much?!?!?)  As they get a little older the contents becomes important (and much panicked searching of google would have been saved if I had know that bananas come out the other end with black stringy bits in them) checking if they really are eating real food, and occasionally finding foreign objects. (My second son’s first ‘solids’ were newspaper, oh dear.)

6. A sock monster moves into your house

I don’t remember loosing many socks in my pre-child days, but for some reason my house seems to be full of tiny odd socks now.  Where do they go?  I know that they are smaller, but really is that a reason for so many to vanish off the face of the earth.  I suspect it may be in part due to little people taking them off and dropping them when out and about…..

7. How much room they take up

Before our oldest son was born, I remember my husband and I discussing if we could manage in the one bedroom flat we were living in.  In the end we decided to move, but I’m sure we were both thinking that one tiny little baby wouldn’t take up much room.  Being a parent has taught me that small children come with stuff, and lots of it.  That’s even before bikes, and toys, and shoes and….. start appearing on the scene.

8. How fast time goes

People tell you that time goes too quickly when you have children, but it has taken me by surprise just how quickly it seems to go.  Tiny babies don’t stay tiny babies for very long at all, and blink and you really will miss it. Sadly.

9. You’re never the same again

In many ways of course, you’re exactly the same as you were before children, but in others, being a parent changes you forever.  Even if you ‘know’ that it’s going to happen, you don’t really know about the change until you have children.  It really does alter the way you see the world and the things you worry about, but that’s probably not a bad thing.

10. Something I really didn’t expect about being a parent.

I suppose I’ve touched on this a bit already, but one thing I really didn’t expect about being a parent is that all the cliché’s are true.  You know on TV when they say, “Have you got children? Then you’ll know” and before I had children I used to think that of course you could understand how they were feeling even if you didn’t have children, but actually you can’t.  It’s completely true, once you have children, you do understand.  Once you have children you know just how much you love them, and how intense those feelings are that go hand in hand with being a parent.

I hope that you’ve enjoyed this quick round up, what didn’t you expect about being a parent?