Some parents who have hired a full-time nanny or a part-time nanny may choose not to believe me, or may think negatively about what I am writing. But to tell you the truth I am tired, I am tired of being a mom. Yes, I love my daughter more than anything else in this world, but being a 24x7 mom of an active toddler is not an easy task. No matter how much mentally you keep yourself ready by reading various sources about child-rearing, how much can you really foresee? Everyone has to learn by doing and taking care of an active toddler is the most taxing task in the world. Yes you have to keep up with the energy a baby has and if you fail to do to you feel irritated.
A mom can never be on a vacation, even when she is with her folks, the responsibility of a child never ceases. You do lose a lot of things when you are blessed with a baby. You gain a lot too, the love of an innocent baby, the smile and high-energy of a toddler fills you with optimism and energy too. You seem to look at these little people with new perspective of how people learn doing things, learn how to talk, walk, kick a ball, and so on. But at the same time you miss having a peaceful good night sleep, a peaceful cup of coffee, reading a novel, watching your favorite TV show, watching a movie without any breaks, and spend some time alone in the washroom too...lol..Yes if you have a one or 1.5yr old, and you are the primary caregiver, I am sure you would agree with me, these little people follow you in the loo too! You have to wake up and follow your little one when she or she wakes up but you can’t fall asleep as soon as they hit the bed, can you? You are constantly battling with yourself to keep yourself awake and to make minimum noise so that you don’t wake your little one.
People who have gone past this phase must be thinking what is so difficult in being becoming a mother or a parent. Well here the list goes on and on:
Having a toddler around can be a challenging task; you will have to be on your toes all the time so that the little one doesn’t hurt herself in the process of exploring things around her. You have to constantly worry whether the food that you offer her will be accepted or rejected, you will have to worry whether it can cause some kind of allergy or not- if you are one of those lucky parents, where your kid doesn’t suffer from any kind of allergy you are gifted and blessed. If you go for shopping, you have to constantly see if your toddler doesn’t pull out that extra blanket or pull out the items from the shelf and keep it in your bag. You have to persistently fret lest your baby throws a tantrum and shouts or yells for that chocolate and others might give you a horror-struck look.
Every morning you have a battle against your toddler to brush her teeth and then make her eat something nutritious, who knows if she will have anything for her lunch at all. This is not the end, every time you plan to go out, you have to carry a whole of things such as baby wipes, diapers, a pair of extra clothes, socks, fruits, biscuits, her favorite toy, and of course her water bottle. Even in a restaurant you can hardly enjoy your favorite cuisine because you have to be on the lookout whether everything is okay for your naughty little one who will refuse to sit and eat and would rather go exploring the ins and outs of the restaurant and talk to people.
Even if your spouse chooses to take care of your toddler for a sometime, you baby refuses to part with you, so you hardly get time to relax and sit for a minute or two. There is no way you can get back your beauty sleep after becoming a mom, who has voluntarily given up her career and her job to take care of a little angel. Life becomes all the more challenging when you have a picky eater. No matter what you do and how interesting you make the food, the child simply refuses to eat and the poor mother gets all sorts of advice from near and dear ones on how to feed a child! Phew, parents always advice their children to catch up on sleep as much as possible before having a baby, but can you really do this? Can someone really store sleep and then take the stored sleep and add it to yourself to renew your energy levels—NO!
So unless you have a nanny or a maid who can exactly do what you want for your baby, your life can get difficult and since you have chosen to bring this little person on this Earth, all you need to have is patience and live through it until your baby becomes independent enough to take care of herself. Till then, get some sleep when your child sleeps and enjoy the highs and lows of parenthood.