What no one told me before I became a parent
Some things are better discovered on one’s own because who would have believed that:
- Sometimes, a baby who is wearing a lovely elastic-legged disposable diaper, can poop their body weight and cover every surface of both baby and surrounding geography
- School supply shopping is second only to Christmas shopping in anxiety, demands and expense
- Words your mother said, the very words you swore you’d never use, come out of your mouth of their own accord
- Potty training can be the most mortally exhausting, frustrating episode of a parent’s entire life
- Some dads can, indeed, sleep soundly through the sound of a screaming infant
- Despite your college all nighters, the staying up till dawn talking with friends, the time you worked a 24 hour shift, nothing prepares you for the sleeplessness of the first year of your baby’s life OR the first year your teenager has his license
- Letting go and letting them grow up, fall down, make choices and follow through is the hardest thing you’ll ever do
July 25th, 2006 at 11:03 pm
Here’s another one:
When you you have a newborn and can almost hold him/her in the palm of your hand, do your level best to imprint that image in your memory, because years later you will have a very hard time remembering that your child was ever actually that small.