Becoming a parent is something that will forever change your life. You can read as many parenting books as you like and you can talk to all of your friends that are already parents about what their experiences are, however, nothing quite compares to experiencing it firsthand. Only then will you realize the full extent of how your life has changed completely.
Although most people can agree that their lives change for the better now that they have someone to look after and love deeply, there are a variety of challenges that come along with it all. Here are some of the things that you will realize changed the minute you became a new parent.
You Will Never Sleep In Anymore
When you have a newborn you will be up frequently in the beginning stages. You will find that you are either changing a diaper, feeding or walking back and forth trying to get them to calm down for a large portion of your day.
Babies don’t come out of the womb with the ability to be able to sleep long periods like adults do. Usually, babies sleep for periods of 2-4 hours at a time, in the beginning, waking frequently in between for feedings and to be changed. As they get older they will continue to have irregular sleeping patterns at times, and sometimes have full fledged sleep regressions.
Even into the elementary school age, you can expect your children to be up much earlier than you would like. Gone are the days of drinking heavily at the bar and getting to sleep off your night the next morning. When you have a little one in the house you will be forced to be up and be ready to go long before you feel like it.
You Will Worry More
Being a parent changes your instincts to be much more protective. You can start to worry about things that you never even considered to be a risk at one point in your life. This can vary in intensity from person to person, however, most parents will agree that they worry more when they have someone else to look after rather than when they only had to look after themselves.
You’ll Have All The Cartoons Memorized
Having a child means that you will likely know all of the latest cartoons that have come out and can sing along to and recite half of the script.
Children frequently like to watch the same films over and over until it becomes like a broken record in the background. You may start to become so used to the background noise that you don’t even hear it anymore.
Originally posted on August 31, 2017 @ 1:42 pm
