If you were to look at my Instagram feed, you would think that parenting is one constantly joyous trip, full of adorable toddler moments and sweet baby smiles. And that’s because when I’m engaged in the other side of parenting – trying to reason with a small person who knows no reason, trying to settle a baby who does not want to nap no matter how nicely I ask – my phone is nowhere near and I don’t have the mental headspace to step back and snap a pic. Also, I would like to remember all the sweet moments and I’m actively looking forward to the blurring of memory for the deeply frustrating ones.
But make no mistake: parenting is deeply frustrating. Within every day there are slices of joy so sweet and beautiful my heart feels like it could burst. And moments of frustration and exhaustion so intense my head feels like it could explode. It’s intense.
I’m on the hunt for a really honest, balanced parenting blog. Know any? I don’t want one of those where they only speak about the gift of parenting and what a constant joy it is to have kids and how their children or babies come with their own built-in rainbow, because I know all that and it’s not entirely true, is it? I also don’t want one where they just bitch about how kids ruined their life and OMG people without kids are so lucky and don’t know it, because I know all that and it’s not entirely true, is it?
What I’m after is a place I can go to commiserate when I’m in a parenting low, and celebrate when I’m in a parenting high. Someone who says, occasionally: well, this totally sucks. And someone who can also say: this is such fun.
Perhaps that’s what I’ll do here. Because some moments of the day it really totally sucks. But other moments, oh! It is such fun. Wouldn’t it be nice to read that instead of the rainbows and unicorns and thinly veiled regrets?
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