Reply to Does having kids really suck as bad as people say?

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Reply to "Does having kids really suck as bad as people say?"

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[quote=Anonymous]Expanding on the "it gets better with time" idea, which is not about ignoring your kids or parenting minimally, but about kids' development.

Vacation with at 2-year-old: douse child in sunblock, lug baby gear to beach, and spend day alternating between helping child not drown and helping child not get skin cancer.

Vacation with a 10-year-old:  snorkel together.

Weekend day with a 2-year-old:  organize activities around sleep, mood, food.  Take child to playground and watch closely or have a play date with a child who needs as much supervision as yours.

Weekend day with a 10-year-old, togetherness version-- go to a museum or movie, take a hike, go camping, kayak, see a play, watch her soccer game.  Social version: she organizes time with a friend and they ditch you the first chance they get in favor of whatever the hell they like to talk about in private.  Or this could happen at someone else's house.

Weekday evening with a 2-year-old:  race to day care from work and then home from there, cram in bath, dinner, cleaning up the unholy mess from toddler eating style, pass out because you were up at an ungodly hour with said child.

Weekday evening  with a 10-year-old: nice walk home from school with kid, during which time you can find out how much homework is left and how the day went.   Prepare dinner together, or let homework happen while you prepare, then clean up together.  Child showers by herself, then you get a little more together time, then she's off to bed.

Parenting is very, very time intensive and it is, bar none, the biggest change I've ever experienced and most people will experience.  The part of it that is 24/7 kid-related activities is comparatively short, though, and IMHO a baby is just as happy at an art museum as sitting in a circle at baby and me art or music class.  When I was growing up our world wasn't organized around kid activities, and we had the freedom to play in the neighborhood at a much younger age.  That's not always possible today, but this idea that it's 100% baby schedule or else is a comparatively new one, and it's not necessary for raising a happy kid with happy parents. [/quote]

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