Before you have a child, you can read all the books, articles and parenting sites, but nothing will fully prepare you for it. Being a parent is full of surprises and those who have done it are kind enough to pass down what they’ve learned from experience. Here are some things parents say they wish they knew before having kids.
- Making a baby isn’t as easy as it sounds- Some people make getting pregnant look so easy, but it’s not that way for all. “Before I got pregnant, I naively thought that whenever I would want to have a child, my husband and I would just have sex every day for a month and bam, that would be it,” one mom shares. “The human body doesn’t really work that way.”
- The first few months can be torture- If you’re a fan of sleeping, showering and functioning well, the first few months of having a newborn can be tough. “It’s impossible to truly convey just what it’s like to wake up at night every two hours for several months, or to try to calm a baby who’s screaming inconsolably, or deal with your body being three sizes bigger than it used to be,” one parent explains.
- You will sorely miss sleep- After you survive the newborn and toddler stages, you may still have sleep issues, thanks to kids’ nightmares, them sleeping between you and your partner and general parenting anxiety that keeps you up at night.
- You don’t need a lot of baby stuff- Lots of new parents think they need playpens, swings, bouncy chairs, play mats, sleep hammocks and teething rings, but veteran parents say you don’t even need half of those things. First-time parents may be afraid their baby will get bored or need constant stimulation, but “you don’t need multiple, endless ways to occupy them even when they’ve started toddling, because everything is entertaining to a young child,” according to one mom.
- Don’t worry if your child isn’t reaching development milestones- It’s easy to stress if your child isn’t walking or potty trained as early as other babies their age, but it’s important to remember all kids develop in their own timeframe.
- You can’t take too many pictures- A veteran parent shares, “You’ll probably take photos and videos constantly and that’s one thing you’ll never regret.”
Source:Lifehacker