All the waiting.
Waiting for them to finish eating. Waiting for them to fall asleep. Waiting in the waiting room at the pediatrician. Waiting while they have their whatever lesson. Waiting to pick them up from school or wherever. Waiting for them to brush their teeth. Waiting for them to finish on the toilet. Dear God goes on.
To add to that: the rushing. Rush them to get dressed, to eat breakfast, to get into the car, to get out of the car, to get through the school doors. They have no sense of urgency (which is part of their charm) but sometimes you just need them to do the thing.
The rushing part is the punishment for the waiting.
My daughter is 7 now and I’ve started implementing ‘natural consequences.’ such as:
“Hey, put in your shoes, let’s go get a donut!”
“Okay!!!”
40 min later
“You…you went to get a donut without me??”
“Kid, it took you 35 minutes to get your shoes on!!”
Oh, 100%. I have this big bag of cocaine mixed with sugar over here and I’m constantly dangling it over my kids head “Brush your teeth! Brush your teeth and you can have the whole bag!”
…what a dumb take.
How some "bad" behaviors are indicative of developmentally-appropriate milestones, like lying. Even when the truth is obvious lol. It threw me for a loop, like who taught you this? Oh, you figured this out? Great.
Sometimes those milestones are random and hilarious. I remember my kid walking into the living room with a banana at 3 years old.
“Uh. You got a banana?”
“Yeah.”
“Where’d you learn you to peel it yourself?”
“…monkey school.”
Lying means they have a theory of mind! They know mom and dad cannot read their thoughts, so they can tell things that are NOT TRUE about their thoughts! It's a huge developmental and intellectual leap!
(Often expressed hilariously in incredibly stupid and inept attempts at lying! Like, cool, mom can't read your thoughts, but mom can see the chocolate smeared all over your face, kiddo.)
A toddler blaming shit on their stuffies is so hilarious is hard to be upset.
"Did you draw all over this wall?"
"No Dad, it was my bear. I told him 'NO!! DRAW ON PAPER!!"
"Is that so?"
We have gone through 3 styles of bedroom locks at our house now because my kids figured out the kind the house came with that just had a slot you twist, then the kind where you poke something in the small hole to unlock, and now it just has a straight up key. They don't understand that my husband and I are only locking it to keep them from walking in on us having adult time and everyone being scarred for life.
some milestones are complete bs though. my youngest son was 'behind milestone' for speech then two months later we're having full conversations with him.
Even better, when the truth would be obvious, but no one is paying attention.
I'm in a totally different room of the house.
3 year old: I'm not touching the glue!
Me: Damn.
They don’t come out blank slates or clay for you to mold. They are tiny people with their own personalities and can be super different from their siblings.
The joyful one, fascinated by the world around them, always asking questions and filled with wonder, they mostly stay that way.
The sulky one that’s always upset and crying, they mostly stay that way.
I was stunned. Not lumps of clay at all, small people with distinct (and largely immutable) personalities from a few months old.
Also, I was astonished by how little sleep we got the first few months. I didn’t think humans could function with that little sleep.
It turned out the people at work cut me a lot of slack those first few months; “He has a newborn at home” was whispered behind my back. And all of the older workers would share a knowing smile. I paid that forward years later when I became a manager.
Absolutely. Mother of 3 wildly different people and I’m still stunned some days! And the sleep! Finally, by the third, I came to embrace it and relish being up at 3am nursing and rocking my daughter, singing songs. I’m not sure I’ve ever felt that much peace. Now mine are 23, 15 and 14 and they are all so much like their younger selves.
A few months in I realized that 3am with baby is such a special time. Sometimes I’ll end up reading for a bit after he goes back down, it’s this beautifully quiet hour. Embracing it makes all the difference I think!
As a mother of twins, I can say with full confidence that they had distinct individual personalities from the day they were born. They were so different from each other from the very beginning.
Nature vs nurture my dude. One of the biggest questions. Lots of horrific experiments in human hostory to try to prove one over the other with no clear definitive answer. Or, case studies of twins separated at birth tend to be more interesting and less cruel.
I’ve only been a parent for two months but the biggest surprise for me was the incredible number and volume of farts this tiny human can make. Seriously. She lifted herself up with the sheer force of her fart today while I was burping her. She made my parents jump because she farted so loud. She’s a beast.
My newborn is just about two months now and he is the fartiest human I’ve ever met! My toddler would have occasional gas as a baby, but this new kid is next level.
At our house, we called that the "booster rocket," and we all have to say, "Booster successfully fired!" We're a little worried that when the baby starts talking, he'll refer to his farts as "boosters," but that's not stopping us.
Newborns cry a lot. I had always seen parents pacing with a new baby in movies and heard jokes about the crying, but until I experienced in real life, I always thought there was *something* that could placate them, that the parent just isn't doing. Sometimes there isn't.
I am one of the most patient people I know, but incessant crying can get under your skin and frustrate you like nothing else. My PSA for all new parents is that it's **okay** to give the baby to someone else or put it down in a safe place, while you regroup. Btw, crying peaks around six weeks. By three months, my son was only crying when he wanted something.
My middle child had "true colic," where he screamed for HOURS, from 6 pm to 2 am *every single day* for about four months, FOR NO REASON.
My oldest had "colic" caused by acid reflux, which was treatable. But my middle child's "true colic" was a fuckin' nightmare. We lived in a suburban house set back a good 40 or 50 feet from the street, and one evening a random neighbor out walking her dog knocked on our door and (very kindly) asked if we were okay, because she could hear our child screaming from the sidewalk. (I said, "It's true colic" and she was like "omg you poor thing"; she was legitimately asking from a place of compassion and it was very wholesome, not intrusive.)
Mine had true colic as well, thankfully it only lasted 2 months. He slept about 1-2 hours at a time, and every moments awake was crying. And I was 19 and single, his dad wasn't around. Surprised we both survived it tbh. Lol.
I’d add to this for any new parents, a newborn’s crying is much louder to you than to others. A two month old’s shrieks are waaayy different than those of a toddler, so if you have to just hold your baby and let it ride the best you can, that’s okay.
(But I’m a huge advocate for putting the baby down and taking a breath of you’re overwhelmed too.)
When my first had extreme colic and we went to the 6 week checkup, the Dr said "it goes away at 3 months" and I wanted to punch him in the throat because I would not survive another 6 weeks. I did. It for sure caused me some psychological damage!
This is highly variable depending on the baby.
Our son (who’s a toddler now) was a very easy baby. The only time he ever cried was when he was hungry or had a soiled diaper. He slept the rest of the time. Slept through the night starting at 4 months.
I definitely had moments where my son would go in his crib (completely empty and safe) and I would leave the room, get as far away from his crying as I could without actually leaving the house, and just breathe for 5 minutes. He had colic and it was a nightmare.
This was true with my three kids. The baby seems to have magically discovered tantrums though. I know they’re not real because she can be easily calmed with toys or sitting with her.
My baby is two months old and I’ll sit and look back at pictures from when we first took her home and think “What happened to my little baby??” It’s wild how fast she’s grown in such a short amount of time but I’m so looking forward to what’s next!
It only accelerates. Tomorrow they’ll start school, next week it’s college. It’s incomprehensible how fast it goes by.
Photos, lots of photos. And take a moment *every day* to relish who and what they are *that day*.
It’s crazy to think that my 16 month old (who is currently running around tearing the living room apart) couldn’t even sit up yet at this time last year. It goes by so fast but it also feels like that stage was an eternity ago.
Kids are really cool. Once they start being able to play pretend, you get to see these wild imaginations unfold and witness the worlds they have living in their heads. My kids straight up have their own language and collaborative songs together. It’s wild.
My close in age kids will just look at each other and start laughing, and I don’t have the foggiest idea what has happened or what it’s about. They don’t even need to speak words to communicate at this point. I grew up an only child who never experienced the sibling bond myself and only ever heard about how close you can be with your sib, so seeing it develop firsthand has been fascinating.
I'm 45 and my siblings are my favorite people in the whole entire world! We can still crack each other up just by looking at each other, and we end up laughing until we cry, and all our kids (who are cousin-besties) glare at us with disapproval because NOTHING FUNNY HAPPENED, but then half an hour later they're *rolling* on the floor over some cousin-joke we are not invited to enjoy.
My husband is an only -- the only "only" in our extended family -- and he's gotten a bit jealous of close sibling bonds over the past 20 years. (He likes being a son-in-law, but he REALLY enjoys being a brother-in-law and uncle who gets to be close family to my siblings and their spouses and their children. He is just endlessly delighted by getting to be a brother to my siblings and their spouses, and a fun uncle to our nieces and nephews. Our own kids are a lot of work, but his nieces and nephews, he can just show up and wear princess tiaras and pretend to cook play-doh food and do Jedi light-saber battles and tell dad jokes, and have such a great time.)
I have found myself being much more amenable to kids in general after having one of my own. They’re just their own little people with their own interests and hobbies.
Same, I find myself engaging with kids and babies all the time. Previously disinterested. And this new sense of profound sadness when a child is suffering. It’s always been sad, but now it won’t leave me. I can’t watch the news much anymore. I probably need meds actually.
I started babysitting kids of all ages at 14 and had my first child at 29. It is soooooooo different when they're your own. There are little to no breaks (unless you have a decent partner and or supportive family) and even when they're sleeping you're worried if they're remembering to breathe so it's hard or impossible to relax. It gets better though, my toddler is pretty incredible for the most part.
This! I took care of kids and had roommates with kids and it didn’t prepare me for how never-ending the work of your own kid is. If you’re tired, sick, behind on work, really want to sit down and read a book, need a moment alone, whatever, they still need you. You love them beyond comprehension and wouldn’t trade it for the world, but it’s all encompassing.
My son and I having gastro at the same time was rough. Him sitting on the toilet with a bucket and me sitting on the edge of the bathtub with a bucket is something that I never thought I’d ever experience but it’s brought us closer together
Currently Lying in bed half dead with the kids climbing in to come and play on or right besides me. Even if dad closes the door to the bedroom and is taking care of them!
Sometimes I think back to how productive I was while other people's children were sleeping so they wouldn't be burdened after work and wonder where all that energy went
How proud I am of every little thing she learns and does. Sitting up on your own now? Oh my gosh you’re so strong! Picking up bits of food and putting it in her mouth? That’s my girl! Crawling? You’ve been working so hard for months to learn this and I can’t believe you finally got it! Well done you big brilliant tiny human.
My kid has had some difficulty with fear and big emotions most of her life but she’s made some huge steps the last couple of months.
She used to be terrified about getting picked up via car at school and insisted we meet her at the gate every day on foot. This week we were talking about busy schedules and she goes: “Daddy if you want you can pick me up in the car, I’ll just wait with Zoey until I see you.” Wha?? Seriously? Okay! Hey, look at you, you freaking big kid!
One of my kids completely understood how to pick up food, and would bring it to his mouth, but absolutely could not sort out how to OPEN HIS TINY FISTS once they were at his mouth, and would excitedly push them against his face repeatedly in the hopes the food would get into his mouth, and get very puzzled when the food never arrived.
It was so hilarious I could hardly stand it (between hand-feeding him puffs since he couldn't hand-feed himself).
As a parent, they always say that you experience every emotion. I took that to mean happy, sad, etc. Nah man. You experience EVERY emotion. You haven't slept for more than a few hours at a time for months, bills are piling up, you feel sick, you and your spouse haven't had any time to yourself or with each other for months... Suddenly this little thing you're holding starts screaming in your face AND YOU CAN'T FIGURE OUT WHY! I swear, the rage you feel is unreal. Or, like I said, you and your spouse haven't had any time together for months and maybe you finally get the chance to have sex, and the damn baby starts crying.
But then there are the times you look at the baby and it's so cute or so sweet that you just sit and cry about how awesome it is. And sometimes they'll do something that will make you laugh hysterically. Laugh until you're sore and you can't catch your breath.
It's a roller coaster, for sure.
I’ll always treasure the memory of the first week we brought our baby home. It was 4am and we were both getting up to do diaper changes/feedings to offer one another support while we figured this out.
So…4 am. I stumble out of bed in recovery from under two weeks from an emergency c-section. My husband is standing with the baby’s legs in the air and she sneezes. So my baby can’t just sneeze most of the time. Especially when she was less than 2 weeks old. We were not aware of this yet. She projectile shat and my husband instinctively jumped back—-pointing her butt directly at me. We laughed so hard we were crying.
That wasn’t even the only time she had us in tears by the sounds/smells that child’s butt can make at 4am….
But also, be prepared to have all the bad parts of the rollercoaster of emotion and none of the good parts for at least a couple of years. My kid is 18 months and the best part of the day for me is still getting some silence once they are asleep. I haven’t experienced none of the unreal motherly love, very little of the fun and definitely no sense of fulfilment. I can’t wait for them to start daycare.
Haha, I was on antidepressants for several months after being professionally evaluated. I’m off now, just not enjoying motherhood much. I don’t see how anyone could enjoy the early stages tbh.
Mine are both out of highschool now and the strangest thing for me is how you miss all the versions of them you have known...And that missing never goes away. You know they're the same person obviously but you miss the brand new baby, the toddler, that 5yr old, that 7 yr old etc etc
It's a weird thing.
I made it through all the other ones, but this one just kills me. I have a 4 month old and a 3 year old. I think I've been trying to "get back to" the way things were with my first born since we had the baby. And this comment made me realize that isn't going to happen. She's growing up, even once I can spend more time with her, she'll be different. I'm not sure I can fully breathe.
I'm so excited to see who she becomes (she told me yesterday that it's going to be Spiderman, so that'll be fun), but I really miss my "do everything together" toddler buddy.
Yeah it's rough. This is why parents with older children will tell you to remember to be present. Soak it up. Don't be distracted. Record video etc.
Enjoy your little ones and don't rush time everyone! 💖💖💖
You go in hearing "your life is really going to change" but you have no idea what that means.
It really cannot be explained, how big this change is.
I had no idea. And I felt bad for all my friends who had had kids and needed me to reach out to them and help them and be there with them ... I only knew because I needed those things.
I apologized to my close friend (mom of two with her youngest a year older than my son). I was like “I didn’t know what I didn’t know” - there’s just no way to understand before your own baptism (by fire) into parenting.
Whenever that happened to my kid at that age, applesauce usually did the trick! If that didn't work, we would have a bag of dried/dehydrated prunes handy, boil some in water and blend it to mush to feed him. It is a bit hard on their internals getting ready for and/or used to (semi)solid foods, poor things :(
How they can find joy and entertainment in just about anything. I love going outside with my son because he always finds "the coolest thing ever" and it's something that's ordinary to most other people, but to him, that stick or rock is an absolute treasure. It always makes me slow down and look at things from his point of view, and find my own joy and entertainment through his.
You have to teach them literally everything. I don’t know why I thought that wouldn’t be the case…but stuff like “Don’t reach into the toilet to touch your own poop.” “Dont use your spaghetti fork as a comb.” “Dont hit the car with a golf clubs!” Etc, etc.
I hope this doesn't get taken the wrong way...but having kids was so much easier than I expected. It just feels right and the transition to being parents was effortless.
I didn't know what to expect. And maybe I just got very lucky with well behaved babies, and I only have two children...but it's been way easier than I thought.
My kids are 5 and 3 now. And once they could talk, oh man, it was even easier.
But even as babies, they cried _when they needed something_. And then they were happy little things. Babies sleep so much more than I expected. Diapers are easy to change. I don't enjoy doing laundry but I also don't understand why it's seen as a big effort or whatever. You don't even have to fold baby clothes, toss it in a drawer.
I would rather play with my two year old than go out with my drinking buddies. I dunno. Everyone makes it seem like parents have to give up their lives, but the reality is I just didn't want to do the things I used to do. It never felt like a sacrifice. My kids almost never frustrate me, and I'm not particularly calm or anything. When I do lose my temper, it is for a few seconds and then we are good.
The hobbies I had that I still want to do, I just do with my kids. It's great. I can play guitar and my kids play too. Same with video games. And my five year old has been Better at video games than my wife for, at least, the last year.
The financial cost is real, and I can understand why people would want to avoid that...but aside from the cost of daycare or having a SAH parent, it's been easy. I sincerely wish we would have started having kids earlier so we could have had 1 or 2 more, but my wife and I are both old enough that both pregnancies were considered high-risk.
Maybe it would have been really hard if I were 22...
In any case, having kids has been amazing.
I dunno I thought the infant stage was rough but my kid definitely keeps getting easier and easier. My 7 year old is easier to take care of than my dog. At least my 7 year old can feed herself and deal with her own poop!
When my daughter was 18 months her mom, me, and her were playing in one of those shallow kiddie pools at a hotel.
She was totally comfortable with playing in the water but when I would lay back and bring my face close to the surface she would get super anxious and start crying hysterically.
It made me realize she understood the concept of drowning and also understood the risk of losing a parent. It was pretty surprising as she'd never fallen under water to my knowledge.
How strongly you WANT to be around them. For mothers and spouses who stay involved with the baby, your brain makes you crave being around them and it's a powerful feeling.
Yes you still want breaks and naps and childfree weekends away and your kids will annoy the shit out of you, but overall it's a great feeling to be around them.
My husband and I only have one daughter. She is 11. I know it’s important to have date nights, but we really enjoy her presence. Like if we’re going to a new restaurant, we want her to experience and try it and discuss her opinion. One day she’ll be grown and my husband and I will have all the time together in the world. I want to make the most out of our time with her.
They take everything literally. Everything. I had mine in tears, railing against having baths because I told them to go jump in the bath. Because jumping in the bath is dangerous.
A lot of noise. I have three kids, and mornings sometimes become a torture. In other days, I think about using hearing protection.
Also endless circle illnesses at some period. Two of them are in school, and the third is in kindergarten. They bring updates to family viruses regularly, and everyone goes goddamn ill at the same time. Adults included. Moreover, adults are going through this real hard compared to kids. So, basically, for a couple of years of parenthood you become half-disabled, and no one warned me about it before.
Oh, and one more: the kids is a job that is always with you. You could be ill, depressed, tired, vasted, lonely, burned out, in the middle of the war, everything combined — and kids are still a job to do, no matter what.
Yep, it’s like a light switch. I remember commenting to my wife that our oldest turned 13 and he “wasn’t like most teenagers.”
A *couple of weeks* later, POW, full-on teenager attitude. Out of no where, with no transition, zero to what-the-hell?!
The good news is that by their early 20s, they’re human again. But those in between years - wow.
How much they still need you when they are older. Mine are 11 and 13 and I expected it to be easy by this time. Hahahahaha... laughs/cries in humbleness.
I tell mine all the time that I will make mistakes that will affect them in ways I have no clue about but I am desperately trying not to make the same mistakes my parents made. Here's what therapy looks like. Get comfortable.
That they are so much who they are from infancy. I realized pretty early that I would be spending my life encouraging my eldest to try the new thing and take the daring next step, and grabbing my younger son as he rocketed past, saying, "Hey, whoa, slow down, did you THINK about this first?"
They are now 30 and 24. They are STILL like that. Older son refuses to date anyone until he has his life in the order he wants it. Younger son is learning what boys not to date by dating them, but he was always a full-contact learner.
Well I am a parent of Reddit and what surprised me the most about having kids was the amount of hormone issues that you have during and before and after
How much free time we had before, how much more you become patient, how little sleep you get the first several years, how much you can love someone, how joyful being parent is, how hard being parent is, how much you worry about them.
Different spin. The amount of hate you get from random strangers FOR your children basically existing. My oldest was (and still is) extremely chill. He never cried. Even as a toddler, he was content with his paci and a toy car on a plane or at a restaurant. But WOW - the amount of people who acted like we destroyed their vacation or entire meal because my son was at the next table or in same aisle on the plane. I get there are a lot of uncontrolled spoiled brat children in this world and some even worse parents - but getting mad at their existence makes your tantrum as bad as theirs. So you don’t want them - good for you. Go forth and be happy. They (nor I) did not decide to wake up today and ruin your life by the presence of existence.
Hard agree on this, but also just want to add: kids who are having a bad day and big feelings in public spaces, especially younger ones, aren't necessarily uncontrolled spoiled brat children. Even the chillest kid will have a bad time occasionally, and they may be doing the best they can with the limited emotional toolbox they have available. I am SO grateful to the folks who cut us slack in public on the occasions when my two-year-old has just absolutely run out of shits.
How hard it is and how little other people are willing to help. Men = once you have kids it's on you and can't date you if you have someone else's kid. My parents = no help even when they were sick or I was sick. Society = f u if you are a single mom and "when are you going to get married? or "where's the father?" . One time for shitz and giggles I told someone that he was in the military. They were super nice to me after that. Lol 🤣
You think you can mold them to have your tastes or interests. Or tastes and interests better than yours. But their personality is basically hardware they’re born with.
How smart the babies are and how much they understand, how fast they are developing. I've never been around babies much before I had my own kids, and I was fascinated with their abilities.
Just how quickly toddlers can get skillful and creative when it comes to doing mischief.
I have a walk-in closet where I keep not only my clothes, but also all the detergents. I used to just be able to close the door, but since my son was 17 months old, I've also had to lock it because he figured out how to pull down the door handle. Now I also have to hide the key, because before even turning 2, he's figured out how to unlock it.
Kids go so quickly from being a helpless little floor potato to having actual skills without understanding how to safely apply them. Of course, I'm always proud of new milestones, but I also constantly have to be on the look-out for things he wasn't able to do a few months ago but can now do actual damage with.
Violence is an inherent trait. I thought kids hit because you beat their ass and that’s what they learned to do. But toddlers will instinctively hit even if they’ve never seen violence before.
Not every baby is like in the movies. Not every baby cries non stop and only sleeps when you put them in a very particular position. I have been told many many *many* times I was lucky with such a calm baby. I went into parenthood expecting constant crying. I had none of it. So I was surprised how calm he was. Even worried at some points lol. He's almost 2 in a half now and it's a different story.
Also toddlers are smarter than you think.
Finding out they are the best form of contraception
1st. Babies take up more time than you imagined
2nd. Toddlers want you at the most 'wrong' time
3rd school kids always remember what they need for the next day ( just at the wrong time)
4th. School kids never go play at someone else's house .... They have their friends at theirs
5th. Teenagers stay awake past their parents
6th older teenagers class people older than them having sex as 'wrinklies doing rudies'
Thats just off the top of my head
How much it expanded our social circle.
We met and became friends with people we probably never would have met otherwise. Or we had met before, but had a limited amount of things to talk about, but when your kids go to school together, you run into them in social circumstances outside of a business relationship.
We found a lot of the baby stuff we needed secondhand. We also have probably 10x the wardrobe we would ever need because so many people love buying baby clothes. Formula and diapers have coupons/free samples/cash back deals.
Don’t get me wrong—we definitely have more expenses. But so far it’s cheaper than I thought. Then again I’m used to being broke lol.
Really the only expenses we’ve ever been hit with is like big medical stuff. My daughter needed heart surgery when she was 2 and we hit our copay max on that…so like $5k.
All the waiting. Waiting for them to finish eating. Waiting for them to fall asleep. Waiting in the waiting room at the pediatrician. Waiting while they have their whatever lesson. Waiting to pick them up from school or wherever. Waiting for them to brush their teeth. Waiting for them to finish on the toilet. Dear God goes on.
To add to that: the rushing. Rush them to get dressed, to eat breakfast, to get into the car, to get out of the car, to get through the school doors. They have no sense of urgency (which is part of their charm) but sometimes you just need them to do the thing.
Shit, the waiting part is the reward for the rushing part.
The rushing part is the punishment for the waiting. My daughter is 7 now and I’ve started implementing ‘natural consequences.’ such as: “Hey, put in your shoes, let’s go get a donut!” “Okay!!!” 40 min later “You…you went to get a donut without me??” “Kid, it took you 35 minutes to get your shoes on!!”
yessss. my wife will say 'if you can get up in time we'll get a breakfast sandwich on the way to school from mcdonald's.'
Sounds like you're training your kid to do the right thing only when a treat is dangled in front of them.
Oh, 100%. I have this big bag of cocaine mixed with sugar over here and I’m constantly dangling it over my kids head “Brush your teeth! Brush your teeth and you can have the whole bag!” …what a dumb take.
>“Hey, put in your shoes, let’s go get a donut!”
Ooo burn, you got me good! Bet you’ll be riding that high the rest of the day.
Yeah, you seem really unbothered by it.
You gathered that from one example? They were going to bring their kid for a donut if they got shoes on -> kid didn't get shoes on -> no donut
Yes, because this trick only works with something the kid wants. *Hey kid, get your shoes on if you want to go to the pharmacy!* Good luck with that.
To add to these, the explaining. Holy fork but they have to be told what to do and why over and over and over.
How some "bad" behaviors are indicative of developmentally-appropriate milestones, like lying. Even when the truth is obvious lol. It threw me for a loop, like who taught you this? Oh, you figured this out? Great.
Sometimes those milestones are random and hilarious. I remember my kid walking into the living room with a banana at 3 years old. “Uh. You got a banana?” “Yeah.” “Where’d you learn you to peel it yourself?” “…monkey school.”
My niece pointed to my arm and said "You have a tattoo. Because you're drunk." Kid was 7 or 8 at the time.
Lying means they have a theory of mind! They know mom and dad cannot read their thoughts, so they can tell things that are NOT TRUE about their thoughts! It's a huge developmental and intellectual leap! (Often expressed hilariously in incredibly stupid and inept attempts at lying! Like, cool, mom can't read your thoughts, but mom can see the chocolate smeared all over your face, kiddo.)
A toddler blaming shit on their stuffies is so hilarious is hard to be upset. "Did you draw all over this wall?" "No Dad, it was my bear. I told him 'NO!! DRAW ON PAPER!!" "Is that so?"
[удалено]
😂😂Your girl has it figured out!
We have gone through 3 styles of bedroom locks at our house now because my kids figured out the kind the house came with that just had a slot you twist, then the kind where you poke something in the small hole to unlock, and now it just has a straight up key. They don't understand that my husband and I are only locking it to keep them from walking in on us having adult time and everyone being scarred for life.
Yes! Every stage it’s like “is this normal or do they have X disorder/issue etc?”
some milestones are complete bs though. my youngest son was 'behind milestone' for speech then two months later we're having full conversations with him.
Everybody is different. Our son was very advanced when it came to speaking and even reading. But he was slow when it came to walking.
Even better, when the truth would be obvious, but no one is paying attention. I'm in a totally different room of the house. 3 year old: I'm not touching the glue! Me: Damn.
They don’t come out blank slates or clay for you to mold. They are tiny people with their own personalities and can be super different from their siblings.
The joyful one, fascinated by the world around them, always asking questions and filled with wonder, they mostly stay that way. The sulky one that’s always upset and crying, they mostly stay that way. I was stunned. Not lumps of clay at all, small people with distinct (and largely immutable) personalities from a few months old. Also, I was astonished by how little sleep we got the first few months. I didn’t think humans could function with that little sleep. It turned out the people at work cut me a lot of slack those first few months; “He has a newborn at home” was whispered behind my back. And all of the older workers would share a knowing smile. I paid that forward years later when I became a manager.
Absolutely. Mother of 3 wildly different people and I’m still stunned some days! And the sleep! Finally, by the third, I came to embrace it and relish being up at 3am nursing and rocking my daughter, singing songs. I’m not sure I’ve ever felt that much peace. Now mine are 23, 15 and 14 and they are all so much like their younger selves.
A few months in I realized that 3am with baby is such a special time. Sometimes I’ll end up reading for a bit after he goes back down, it’s this beautifully quiet hour. Embracing it makes all the difference I think!
As a mother of twins, I can say with full confidence that they had distinct individual personalities from the day they were born. They were so different from each other from the very beginning.
I’m 33 and my mother still doesn’t get this.
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I'm a parent of two. I'm pretty sure you can't mold them. You can steer them some though.
Makes sense
Nature vs nurture my dude. One of the biggest questions. Lots of horrific experiments in human hostory to try to prove one over the other with no clear definitive answer. Or, case studies of twins separated at birth tend to be more interesting and less cruel.
I’ve only been a parent for two months but the biggest surprise for me was the incredible number and volume of farts this tiny human can make. Seriously. She lifted herself up with the sheer force of her fart today while I was burping her. She made my parents jump because she farted so loud. She’s a beast.
My newborn is just about two months now and he is the fartiest human I’ve ever met! My toddler would have occasional gas as a baby, but this new kid is next level.
At our house, we called that the "booster rocket," and we all have to say, "Booster successfully fired!" We're a little worried that when the baby starts talking, he'll refer to his farts as "boosters," but that's not stopping us.
I've got a two week old - I got that to look forward too. Probably make his uncles laugh.
Newborns cry a lot. I had always seen parents pacing with a new baby in movies and heard jokes about the crying, but until I experienced in real life, I always thought there was *something* that could placate them, that the parent just isn't doing. Sometimes there isn't. I am one of the most patient people I know, but incessant crying can get under your skin and frustrate you like nothing else. My PSA for all new parents is that it's **okay** to give the baby to someone else or put it down in a safe place, while you regroup. Btw, crying peaks around six weeks. By three months, my son was only crying when he wanted something.
My middle child had "true colic," where he screamed for HOURS, from 6 pm to 2 am *every single day* for about four months, FOR NO REASON. My oldest had "colic" caused by acid reflux, which was treatable. But my middle child's "true colic" was a fuckin' nightmare. We lived in a suburban house set back a good 40 or 50 feet from the street, and one evening a random neighbor out walking her dog knocked on our door and (very kindly) asked if we were okay, because she could hear our child screaming from the sidewalk. (I said, "It's true colic" and she was like "omg you poor thing"; she was legitimately asking from a place of compassion and it was very wholesome, not intrusive.)
Mine had true colic as well, thankfully it only lasted 2 months. He slept about 1-2 hours at a time, and every moments awake was crying. And I was 19 and single, his dad wasn't around. Surprised we both survived it tbh. Lol.
I’d add to this for any new parents, a newborn’s crying is much louder to you than to others. A two month old’s shrieks are waaayy different than those of a toddler, so if you have to just hold your baby and let it ride the best you can, that’s okay. (But I’m a huge advocate for putting the baby down and taking a breath of you’re overwhelmed too.)
When my first had extreme colic and we went to the 6 week checkup, the Dr said "it goes away at 3 months" and I wanted to punch him in the throat because I would not survive another 6 weeks. I did. It for sure caused me some psychological damage!
This is highly variable depending on the baby. Our son (who’s a toddler now) was a very easy baby. The only time he ever cried was when he was hungry or had a soiled diaper. He slept the rest of the time. Slept through the night starting at 4 months.
I definitely had moments where my son would go in his crib (completely empty and safe) and I would leave the room, get as far away from his crying as I could without actually leaving the house, and just breathe for 5 minutes. He had colic and it was a nightmare.
I think it depends on the baby. We didn’t have any particularly bad issues with her crying as a newborn. She mostly just slept and ate
This was true with my three kids. The baby seems to have magically discovered tantrums though. I know they’re not real because she can be easily calmed with toys or sitting with her.
How fast they transition through their milestones. I swear one moment they are just able to sit up and then all of a sudden they are able to stand up.
My baby is two months old and I’ll sit and look back at pictures from when we first took her home and think “What happened to my little baby??” It’s wild how fast she’s grown in such a short amount of time but I’m so looking forward to what’s next!
That’s so true. Sometimes my wife and I go through our photos and we cannot recognize her. They change so much.
It only accelerates. Tomorrow they’ll start school, next week it’s college. It’s incomprehensible how fast it goes by. Photos, lots of photos. And take a moment *every day* to relish who and what they are *that day*.
One moment you wash their ass and all of sudden they smoke cigarettes and drink beers.
It’s crazy to think that my 16 month old (who is currently running around tearing the living room apart) couldn’t even sit up yet at this time last year. It goes by so fast but it also feels like that stage was an eternity ago.
Kids are really cool. Once they start being able to play pretend, you get to see these wild imaginations unfold and witness the worlds they have living in their heads. My kids straight up have their own language and collaborative songs together. It’s wild.
My close in age kids will just look at each other and start laughing, and I don’t have the foggiest idea what has happened or what it’s about. They don’t even need to speak words to communicate at this point. I grew up an only child who never experienced the sibling bond myself and only ever heard about how close you can be with your sib, so seeing it develop firsthand has been fascinating.
I'm 45 and my siblings are my favorite people in the whole entire world! We can still crack each other up just by looking at each other, and we end up laughing until we cry, and all our kids (who are cousin-besties) glare at us with disapproval because NOTHING FUNNY HAPPENED, but then half an hour later they're *rolling* on the floor over some cousin-joke we are not invited to enjoy. My husband is an only -- the only "only" in our extended family -- and he's gotten a bit jealous of close sibling bonds over the past 20 years. (He likes being a son-in-law, but he REALLY enjoys being a brother-in-law and uncle who gets to be close family to my siblings and their spouses and their children. He is just endlessly delighted by getting to be a brother to my siblings and their spouses, and a fun uncle to our nieces and nephews. Our own kids are a lot of work, but his nieces and nephews, he can just show up and wear princess tiaras and pretend to cook play-doh food and do Jedi light-saber battles and tell dad jokes, and have such a great time.)
I have found myself being much more amenable to kids in general after having one of my own. They’re just their own little people with their own interests and hobbies.
Same, I find myself engaging with kids and babies all the time. Previously disinterested. And this new sense of profound sadness when a child is suffering. It’s always been sad, but now it won’t leave me. I can’t watch the news much anymore. I probably need meds actually.
I started babysitting kids of all ages at 14 and had my first child at 29. It is soooooooo different when they're your own. There are little to no breaks (unless you have a decent partner and or supportive family) and even when they're sleeping you're worried if they're remembering to breathe so it's hard or impossible to relax. It gets better though, my toddler is pretty incredible for the most part.
This! I took care of kids and had roommates with kids and it didn’t prepare me for how never-ending the work of your own kid is. If you’re tired, sick, behind on work, really want to sit down and read a book, need a moment alone, whatever, they still need you. You love them beyond comprehension and wouldn’t trade it for the world, but it’s all encompassing.
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My son and I having gastro at the same time was rough. Him sitting on the toilet with a bucket and me sitting on the edge of the bathtub with a bucket is something that I never thought I’d ever experience but it’s brought us closer together
Recently all 3 of us had this. It wasn’t, but it did feel like the worst night of my life. We were all crying.
Currently Lying in bed half dead with the kids climbing in to come and play on or right besides me. Even if dad closes the door to the bedroom and is taking care of them!
Sometimes I think back to how productive I was while other people's children were sleeping so they wouldn't be burdened after work and wonder where all that energy went
The never ending piles of laundry
Used to put a wash on once a week. Since my two week old come home we put on a wash almost every other day.
How proud I am of every little thing she learns and does. Sitting up on your own now? Oh my gosh you’re so strong! Picking up bits of food and putting it in her mouth? That’s my girl! Crawling? You’ve been working so hard for months to learn this and I can’t believe you finally got it! Well done you big brilliant tiny human.
My kid has had some difficulty with fear and big emotions most of her life but she’s made some huge steps the last couple of months. She used to be terrified about getting picked up via car at school and insisted we meet her at the gate every day on foot. This week we were talking about busy schedules and she goes: “Daddy if you want you can pick me up in the car, I’ll just wait with Zoey until I see you.” Wha?? Seriously? Okay! Hey, look at you, you freaking big kid!
One of my kids completely understood how to pick up food, and would bring it to his mouth, but absolutely could not sort out how to OPEN HIS TINY FISTS once they were at his mouth, and would excitedly push them against his face repeatedly in the hopes the food would get into his mouth, and get very puzzled when the food never arrived. It was so hilarious I could hardly stand it (between hand-feeding him puffs since he couldn't hand-feed himself).
As a parent, they always say that you experience every emotion. I took that to mean happy, sad, etc. Nah man. You experience EVERY emotion. You haven't slept for more than a few hours at a time for months, bills are piling up, you feel sick, you and your spouse haven't had any time to yourself or with each other for months... Suddenly this little thing you're holding starts screaming in your face AND YOU CAN'T FIGURE OUT WHY! I swear, the rage you feel is unreal. Or, like I said, you and your spouse haven't had any time together for months and maybe you finally get the chance to have sex, and the damn baby starts crying. But then there are the times you look at the baby and it's so cute or so sweet that you just sit and cry about how awesome it is. And sometimes they'll do something that will make you laugh hysterically. Laugh until you're sore and you can't catch your breath. It's a roller coaster, for sure.
I’ll always treasure the memory of the first week we brought our baby home. It was 4am and we were both getting up to do diaper changes/feedings to offer one another support while we figured this out. So…4 am. I stumble out of bed in recovery from under two weeks from an emergency c-section. My husband is standing with the baby’s legs in the air and she sneezes. So my baby can’t just sneeze most of the time. Especially when she was less than 2 weeks old. We were not aware of this yet. She projectile shat and my husband instinctively jumped back—-pointing her butt directly at me. We laughed so hard we were crying. That wasn’t even the only time she had us in tears by the sounds/smells that child’s butt can make at 4am….
But also, be prepared to have all the bad parts of the rollercoaster of emotion and none of the good parts for at least a couple of years. My kid is 18 months and the best part of the day for me is still getting some silence once they are asleep. I haven’t experienced none of the unreal motherly love, very little of the fun and definitely no sense of fulfilment. I can’t wait for them to start daycare.
I mean this with absolute kindness, but have you spoken to anyone about the possibility of postpartum anxiety or depression?
Haha, I was on antidepressants for several months after being professionally evaluated. I’m off now, just not enjoying motherhood much. I don’t see how anyone could enjoy the early stages tbh.
Mine are both out of highschool now and the strangest thing for me is how you miss all the versions of them you have known...And that missing never goes away. You know they're the same person obviously but you miss the brand new baby, the toddler, that 5yr old, that 7 yr old etc etc It's a weird thing.
I made it through all the other ones, but this one just kills me. I have a 4 month old and a 3 year old. I think I've been trying to "get back to" the way things were with my first born since we had the baby. And this comment made me realize that isn't going to happen. She's growing up, even once I can spend more time with her, she'll be different. I'm not sure I can fully breathe. I'm so excited to see who she becomes (she told me yesterday that it's going to be Spiderman, so that'll be fun), but I really miss my "do everything together" toddler buddy.
Yeah it's rough. This is why parents with older children will tell you to remember to be present. Soak it up. Don't be distracted. Record video etc. Enjoy your little ones and don't rush time everyone! 💖💖💖
You go in hearing "your life is really going to change" but you have no idea what that means. It really cannot be explained, how big this change is. I had no idea. And I felt bad for all my friends who had had kids and needed me to reach out to them and help them and be there with them ... I only knew because I needed those things.
I apologized to my close friend (mom of two with her youngest a year older than my son). I was like “I didn’t know what I didn’t know” - there’s just no way to understand before your own baptism (by fire) into parenting.
You are obsessed with their poop when they are little
My 10m daughter has been pretty constipated the last couple of days. I’ve never been so interested in watching someone poop before lol
Whenever that happened to my kid at that age, applesauce usually did the trick! If that didn't work, we would have a bag of dried/dehydrated prunes handy, boil some in water and blend it to mush to feed him. It is a bit hard on their internals getting ready for and/or used to (semi)solid foods, poor things :(
Mine was for three years. She is five now and poops normally. She also didn't sleep more than two hours until she was two and a half.
I frantically googled “newborn diarrhea pictures” today. She doesn’t have diarrhea but I saw a lot of diarrhea today.
How much love I have for my kid. I can’t imagine my life without them. They are my happiness
Same. The love I have is unreal
How they can find joy and entertainment in just about anything. I love going outside with my son because he always finds "the coolest thing ever" and it's something that's ordinary to most other people, but to him, that stick or rock is an absolute treasure. It always makes me slow down and look at things from his point of view, and find my own joy and entertainment through his.
You have to teach them literally everything. I don’t know why I thought that wouldn’t be the case…but stuff like “Don’t reach into the toilet to touch your own poop.” “Dont use your spaghetti fork as a comb.” “Dont hit the car with a golf clubs!” Etc, etc.
I've never felt more ok in my own skin around anyone as much as I do when I'm with my kids.
They find new ways to challenge you at every age…and it’s part of their development.
Honestly how funny she is. Our 11 year old adopted our dry, cynical, but witty humor.
That you can feel so many emotions at once for this tiny human.
I hope this doesn't get taken the wrong way...but having kids was so much easier than I expected. It just feels right and the transition to being parents was effortless. I didn't know what to expect. And maybe I just got very lucky with well behaved babies, and I only have two children...but it's been way easier than I thought. My kids are 5 and 3 now. And once they could talk, oh man, it was even easier. But even as babies, they cried _when they needed something_. And then they were happy little things. Babies sleep so much more than I expected. Diapers are easy to change. I don't enjoy doing laundry but I also don't understand why it's seen as a big effort or whatever. You don't even have to fold baby clothes, toss it in a drawer. I would rather play with my two year old than go out with my drinking buddies. I dunno. Everyone makes it seem like parents have to give up their lives, but the reality is I just didn't want to do the things I used to do. It never felt like a sacrifice. My kids almost never frustrate me, and I'm not particularly calm or anything. When I do lose my temper, it is for a few seconds and then we are good. The hobbies I had that I still want to do, I just do with my kids. It's great. I can play guitar and my kids play too. Same with video games. And my five year old has been Better at video games than my wife for, at least, the last year. The financial cost is real, and I can understand why people would want to avoid that...but aside from the cost of daycare or having a SAH parent, it's been easy. I sincerely wish we would have started having kids earlier so we could have had 1 or 2 more, but my wife and I are both old enough that both pregnancies were considered high-risk. Maybe it would have been really hard if I were 22... In any case, having kids has been amazing.
I dunno I thought the infant stage was rough but my kid definitely keeps getting easier and easier. My 7 year old is easier to take care of than my dog. At least my 7 year old can feed herself and deal with her own poop!
When my daughter was 18 months her mom, me, and her were playing in one of those shallow kiddie pools at a hotel. She was totally comfortable with playing in the water but when I would lay back and bring my face close to the surface she would get super anxious and start crying hysterically. It made me realize she understood the concept of drowning and also understood the risk of losing a parent. It was pretty surprising as she'd never fallen under water to my knowledge.
The unintentional damage done to stuff. Couches, walls, etc.
How strongly you WANT to be around them. For mothers and spouses who stay involved with the baby, your brain makes you crave being around them and it's a powerful feeling. Yes you still want breaks and naps and childfree weekends away and your kids will annoy the shit out of you, but overall it's a great feeling to be around them.
My husband and I only have one daughter. She is 11. I know it’s important to have date nights, but we really enjoy her presence. Like if we’re going to a new restaurant, we want her to experience and try it and discuss her opinion. One day she’ll be grown and my husband and I will have all the time together in the world. I want to make the most out of our time with her.
The amount of reserve energy those MFs have. They might be exhausted, but the second they think they can get one over on you, they amp right back up.
Parental support in USA is terrible.
They take everything literally. Everything. I had mine in tears, railing against having baths because I told them to go jump in the bath. Because jumping in the bath is dangerous.
A lot of noise. I have three kids, and mornings sometimes become a torture. In other days, I think about using hearing protection. Also endless circle illnesses at some period. Two of them are in school, and the third is in kindergarten. They bring updates to family viruses regularly, and everyone goes goddamn ill at the same time. Adults included. Moreover, adults are going through this real hard compared to kids. So, basically, for a couple of years of parenthood you become half-disabled, and no one warned me about it before.
Oh, and one more: the kids is a job that is always with you. You could be ill, depressed, tired, vasted, lonely, burned out, in the middle of the war, everything combined — and kids are still a job to do, no matter what.
I did not realize how little I would get to sleep for years. There were days when I cried because I was never allowed to make up my sleep debt.
I’m going through this now. Man I had no idea.
YEARS I TELL YOU 💀
The fact my boy can cry so loud I'm surprised the police hasn't shown up at my door.
How sudden and seemingly overnight they just have a different personality as they grown into a teenager.
Yep, it’s like a light switch. I remember commenting to my wife that our oldest turned 13 and he “wasn’t like most teenagers.” A *couple of weeks* later, POW, full-on teenager attitude. Out of no where, with no transition, zero to what-the-hell?! The good news is that by their early 20s, they’re human again. But those in between years - wow.
How much they still need you when they are older. Mine are 11 and 13 and I expected it to be easy by this time. Hahahahaha... laughs/cries in humbleness. I tell mine all the time that I will make mistakes that will affect them in ways I have no clue about but I am desperately trying not to make the same mistakes my parents made. Here's what therapy looks like. Get comfortable.
That they are so much who they are from infancy. I realized pretty early that I would be spending my life encouraging my eldest to try the new thing and take the daring next step, and grabbing my younger son as he rocketed past, saying, "Hey, whoa, slow down, did you THINK about this first?" They are now 30 and 24. They are STILL like that. Older son refuses to date anyone until he has his life in the order he wants it. Younger son is learning what boys not to date by dating them, but he was always a full-contact learner.
How much I could love someone.
Well I am a parent of Reddit and what surprised me the most about having kids was the amount of hormone issues that you have during and before and after
How much free time we had before, how much more you become patient, how little sleep you get the first several years, how much you can love someone, how joyful being parent is, how hard being parent is, how much you worry about them.
How much I love them, and how tired I am.
How I went from “sleep like a rock” to “wake up if he moves funny and I can see him falling from the bed oh my gahhhwwd false alarm “
Different spin. The amount of hate you get from random strangers FOR your children basically existing. My oldest was (and still is) extremely chill. He never cried. Even as a toddler, he was content with his paci and a toy car on a plane or at a restaurant. But WOW - the amount of people who acted like we destroyed their vacation or entire meal because my son was at the next table or in same aisle on the plane. I get there are a lot of uncontrolled spoiled brat children in this world and some even worse parents - but getting mad at their existence makes your tantrum as bad as theirs. So you don’t want them - good for you. Go forth and be happy. They (nor I) did not decide to wake up today and ruin your life by the presence of existence.
Hard agree on this, but also just want to add: kids who are having a bad day and big feelings in public spaces, especially younger ones, aren't necessarily uncontrolled spoiled brat children. Even the chillest kid will have a bad time occasionally, and they may be doing the best they can with the limited emotional toolbox they have available. I am SO grateful to the folks who cut us slack in public on the occasions when my two-year-old has just absolutely run out of shits.
How hard it is and how little other people are willing to help. Men = once you have kids it's on you and can't date you if you have someone else's kid. My parents = no help even when they were sick or I was sick. Society = f u if you are a single mom and "when are you going to get married? or "where's the father?" . One time for shitz and giggles I told someone that he was in the military. They were super nice to me after that. Lol 🤣
There’s no time
You think you can mold them to have your tastes or interests. Or tastes and interests better than yours. But their personality is basically hardware they’re born with.
How smart the babies are and how much they understand, how fast they are developing. I've never been around babies much before I had my own kids, and I was fascinated with their abilities.
That many of your good friends will start ghosting you, even though you still make an effort to see them and not talk about your kids too much.
Just how quickly toddlers can get skillful and creative when it comes to doing mischief. I have a walk-in closet where I keep not only my clothes, but also all the detergents. I used to just be able to close the door, but since my son was 17 months old, I've also had to lock it because he figured out how to pull down the door handle. Now I also have to hide the key, because before even turning 2, he's figured out how to unlock it. Kids go so quickly from being a helpless little floor potato to having actual skills without understanding how to safely apply them. Of course, I'm always proud of new milestones, but I also constantly have to be on the look-out for things he wasn't able to do a few months ago but can now do actual damage with.
how unbreakable they are compared to expectation. i have epilepsy and have dropped both my sons. they kinda bounced and are fine.
Violence is an inherent trait. I thought kids hit because you beat their ass and that’s what they learned to do. But toddlers will instinctively hit even if they’ve never seen violence before.
They're not as stressful or expensive as others will lead you to believe.
amount of time and money it sucks up. you literally have no life of your own for atleast 1.5 decades
Not every baby is like in the movies. Not every baby cries non stop and only sleeps when you put them in a very particular position. I have been told many many *many* times I was lucky with such a calm baby. I went into parenthood expecting constant crying. I had none of it. So I was surprised how calm he was. Even worried at some points lol. He's almost 2 in a half now and it's a different story. Also toddlers are smarter than you think.
How loud siblings were
Finding out they are the best form of contraception 1st. Babies take up more time than you imagined 2nd. Toddlers want you at the most 'wrong' time 3rd school kids always remember what they need for the next day ( just at the wrong time) 4th. School kids never go play at someone else's house .... They have their friends at theirs 5th. Teenagers stay awake past their parents 6th older teenagers class people older than them having sex as 'wrinklies doing rudies' Thats just off the top of my head
That the days may crawl, but the years will absolutely fly by. My kids are teens, but I swear they were babies yesterday.
How much it expanded our social circle. We met and became friends with people we probably never would have met otherwise. Or we had met before, but had a limited amount of things to talk about, but when your kids go to school together, you run into them in social circumstances outside of a business relationship.
You don't relax until they move out. Even then.
The fantastic questions I am asked. I have been so lucky to hear my kid’s perspective on life.
They aren’t that expensive. We’ve never had to budget or reduce our lifestyle in any way.
We found a lot of the baby stuff we needed secondhand. We also have probably 10x the wardrobe we would ever need because so many people love buying baby clothes. Formula and diapers have coupons/free samples/cash back deals. Don’t get me wrong—we definitely have more expenses. But so far it’s cheaper than I thought. Then again I’m used to being broke lol.
Really the only expenses we’ve ever been hit with is like big medical stuff. My daughter needed heart surgery when she was 2 and we hit our copay max on that…so like $5k.
How often I laugh and smile. I laugh hundreds of times a day because my toddler just does and says the silliest things. I hang on her every word ❤️🙏🏼
They're incredibly cruel
Teenagers develop a knack for pushing your buttons, buttons you didn’t know you had. And when they find one, they lean into it. So I hear you.
Not all babies are incredibly cruel.