7 parents share the harsh truths no one told them about having kids

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'People tell you but you don't believe it: how much you will love your children'

"Nobody can convince you that a new person, a complete stranger, one who didn't even exist just a year earlier, will trigger this sort of love.

"You may have searched years for a person you could marry, but now one is just given to you (well, that's the man's point of view) out of seemingly nowhere."

Richard Muller

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'They are wildly entertaining'

'They are wildly entertaining'

"When they are not driving you crazy or worrying you to death and you are not dying from sleep/sex deprivation and having to clean sh*t off practically everything they are the most charming, funny, endlessly fascinating people you've ever known. Really."

Dan Tynan

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'Children do not do what you say. They do what you do.'

"You can tell them how you think they should approach a problem, a person, a situation. And they will appear to listen, until at least 13, I am told. (I have a 10-year-old and a 7-year-old).

"But what you do is far, far more relevant to them. They will model on your actual behavior, right down to the flaws and tics and things you'd probably prefer to change."

Greg Brown

'You will often make the mistake of parenting the child you were instead of the child you have'

'You will often make the mistake of parenting the child you were instead of the child you have'

"That's OK, as long as you recognize it and stop it immediately."

Imogen Moore

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'Nobody told me how much my emotional range would expand'

"In just the first year, I would have feelings I'd never even imagined myself capable of, good and bad ...

"Your little baby can make you feel lower than low, exhausted, upset, inept and angry, and the next minute you can feel like everything on earth was smiling on you; you hurt from laughing and your heart feels like it's literally going to explode."

Valerie Fletcher

'Your child could be exactly like your partner'

'Your child could be exactly like your partner'

"After conceiving, carrying, and delivering our baby, when she finally arrived, I expected her to be ... well, like me!

"When I first laid eyes on her, my thought process went: Thank goodness we are all alive, I need sleep, and then, wow, she looks a lot like Jay.

"That first night she slept 'skin to fur' with Dad. They frequently snoozed together. Nobody told me how often I'd find her out of her crib and in his arms, nor how cute I'd find this."

Mira Zaslove

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'You'll develop a new sense of what you consider gross'

"You'll eventually notice baby barf on your pants and think, 'Eh, not bad enough to change to go to the store.'

"You'll go out in public and realize you have a little poop on your sleeve, shrug your shoulders, and continue your shopping.

"You'll show up in three-day old clothing to drop kids off at daycare and not even flinch."

Janice Schwarz