I thought that when kids were tired, they'd sleep. HA. Hahahahaha.

That kids are not lumps of clay to be molded and they come into the world with their own wants, needs and opinions.

You don’t get to pick whether your kids are morning people, good eaters, good sleepers, calm, clingy, Wild, etc. you can mitigate negative behaviors to some extent, but you can’t MAKE a child sleep, eat or use the bathroom if they don’t want to.

How much I really used to sleep in.

In the animal world a parent will sacrifice themselves to save their off spring. The minute my son was born I felt the same way. It was something I had never thought about.

Anonymous wrote:How utterly nonlinear their development is.

Yes! No previous behavior is not a prediction of future (consistent) behavior.

I’ve become more acutely aware of how selfish and neglectful one of my parents was.

We had kids later than most in our friend group and I'm still eating the humble pie - my opinions on everything from sleep training to when/how/who to leave your kids with have changed now that I'm a player instead of a spectator. It's a rite of passage to realize you can't judge someone until you've been in their shoes, and I'm grateful for the experience.

Except I still don't understand parents who get upset when their kids aren't invited to weddings. Sorrryyyyyy.

How HARD it is.

How different each child is, even with the same parenting and that some children are just born difficult. I used to judge people with poorly behaved children. Now, with one polite well-behaved child and another who has challenged us every single day of his life, I understand that some are more difficult than others, no matter how much effort you put into it.

Sorry to anyone I judged!!

Agree with not realizing how hard it is to be a parent. Being a parent myself has helped me to be much more understanding of what life was like for my parents.

That so many adults are really childish. And that we have very high expectations of children but not of adults.

Raising kids is hard.

How hard it is and how much my parents did for us. They died young and I so wish I could have told them.

How utterly nonlinear their development is.

This is just for fun!

Before I was a parent I thought parents sat in the back with their babies because they couldn't stand to leave their precious poopkins alone in back, and I thought they were overly indulgent nuts. Now I get that its for your own sake to keep the baby from screaming the whole way and I'm totally riding in back to save my sanity

Before I had 2 I didn't really see why screentime was necessary - now I'm all over the ipad for my 2yo to give me 15minutes to get baby down and give him a little 1:1 love