With the birth of my second child quickly coming, I have been thinking a lot of how that will be changing my life. Of course, I can sit here and think out "how things will be" but I can tell you...that is a waste of my time. Motherhood hit me like a ton of bricks. I thought I was prepared. I wasn't even close. I would have to say that the number one lesson I have learned from becoming a mom is...."don't judge others....especially parents!"!!!
Let me just give you a couple of examples of why I say this. Obviously, my husband and I were older when our first one made her dramatic arrival into the world. Let me tell you the drama hasn't stopped since. Anyway, BEFORE we had a child, if we would be in a store or restaurant and a kid was throwing a fit, we would both look at each other and say (after an exaggerated eye roll).."shut that little brat up". Only to each other of course. We assumed that if a parent couldn't control their child's melt down in public, they were a total failure and the kid was doomed for juvenille hall one day. Let me just say when my little girl threw her first fit in a public place, I think we both panicked. We just wanted to get her out of there before people (like we used to be) were judging our parenting skills. Can I tell you now, when I see a kid throwing a fit in public, I give the mom and dad a little sympathetic smile letting them know, I SO GET IT!! All the while, thinking, "thank God that isn't my child"
AND potty training should be totally accomplished by the age of 3. I started at training our daughter at 2 1/2. Can I tell you she was still in Pull-Ups at 3. It wasn't until it was HER idea that she actually got it. Before, I assumed that children that didn't have their children potty trained by 3 were lazy parents and/or their child was slow!!!!
These are just a couple of examples of things I thought before having a child. I could go on and on with more examples of how wrong I was. Now I look back and think, "what did I know about children?" ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!!! I will tell you that I have stepped out of the competition for mother of the year. I will never be perfect and I have bad days. I let myself off the hook on trying to compare and compete with other mothers. (because whether we admit it or not we are watching each other) I choose to try my best every day to raise this child as God wants me too. After all technically, she does belong to Him.
So I will tell you.....somedays I let my child run around in her pajamas all day. Sometimes, I let her eat in front of the television. Sometimes, she falls asleep before I have a chance to give her a bath or brush her teeth. Somedays, I let her watch way too much T.V. All things I said I would never do. So welcome to the world of motherhood and the reality of it all. This is what I have learned in my time as a mom. I look forward to the new lessons having another one will bring.
This is something my sister-in-law said to me before I had my first child. At first I didn't find it very comforting. She said, "Being a mother is 10,000 times harder than you think it will be...but 1,000,000 times more wonderful than you can imagine. I couldn't agree more.
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