In which I whine just a little bit on a Friday night.

I keep thinking that parenting will get easier once the next thing happens – once they’re crawling, once they’re walking, once they’re out of diapers, once they’re in school, blah blah blah – and to some extent this is true.

It DOES get easier to fly on an airplane to grandma’s house when no one needs a car seat and everyone schleps their own stuff.

But parenting also gets harder.

The sassing is more sassy, the doors are slammed harder, and the testing is more… testy.

I have the same conversation over and over (and over and over) again with a certain strong willed child who shall remain nameless: when you do THAT, the natural consequence is THIS, so to avoid THIS you should try not doing THAT.

Just once. Please? Humor me. Just try it on to see how it fits. Who knows? You might like it.

I think the fatal error I keep making in my head is that I want this to be EASY. I don’t want to get off the couch, I don’t want to have this conversation right now, I don’t want to be inconvenienced.

In other words, I don’t want parenting to disrupt my life.

Wha-?

2 thoughts on “In which I whine just a little bit on a Friday night.”

  1. ha! love this one. I had a major week-o-depressed-mama after I got back from my first weekend away and dealt with the baby who missed his mama so much he could not be farther than touching for over a week. and he was extra whiny and you name it. i didn’t realize my expectation for him was that he’d turn 1 year and then automatically be a certain percentage easier to take care of! i had a wha– moment myself… 🙂

  2. Hmmm. Yes I remember thinking that way…for a number of years….before I realized:
    *Problems always seem to show up when I least want them to, like when I’m too tired to think clearly, or I’m too happy to want my bubble to be popped!
    *It only changes, it doesn’t get easier
    “When they turn 18 I’m done” is a myth (which I tightly gripped onto throughout the teens years—-NO! Don’t tell me it isn’t true…. LA LA LA LA LA….I can’t hear you!)
    *When they are *finally* adults and having children of their own…..
    It only changes, it doesn’t necessarily get easier!
    *God is more interested in our character than our comfort….or He would never have invented children!
    *Can’t do this without God!

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