/Parenthood/ noun: To be completely responsible for the emotional, physical, social, intellectual well-being of another human.
It is freaking scary!
Here are 13 of the scariest moments we face as parents:
1. Pregnancy. There is a little life growing inside of you, sucking the life out of you, depleting your energy, and causing your body and mind to do crazy things. Pimples and veins pop up everywhere, you lose control over your bodily functions, and your belly grows to unfathomable proportions. For those who have struggled to get pregnant, experienced pregnancy loss, or have had complications, pregnancy fears take on a life of their own and render women helpless, holding their breath at every turn for 40 weeks. Years later, your body morphs again and will never be the same. Take pride in those hard-earned scars!
2. Information Overload. Parents of previous generations will quickly tell you that the fear mongering associated with having information at our fingertips makes our generation of parents far more neurotic. Whether you read it in a book, hear it from a friend or a mommy group, or find it online, you are constantly being told you are doing something wrong. Horror stories abound everywhere, particularly when you visit Dr. Google or turn on the news. I remember reading a simple pregnancy book when I was expecting my first. The chapter was about breastfeeding and the very first sentence was “If you can’t breastfeed because your baby died…” Trust your instincts and do your own research or you will be constantly living in fear of the zombie apocalypse.
3. Childbirth. As miraculous as it is, all of the “what-ifs” are downright scary. Not to mention the excruciating pain, the painful recovery, and the hormone letdown that renders you utterly unrecognizable.
4. Ultimate Control. When you are asked to make the first decisions about your newborn in the hospital and you are waiting for someone else to tell you what to do, the nurse says “YOU ARE THE PARENTS” and you realize for the first time what this really means.
5. That moment when you realize your heart is officially walking around outside of your body.
6. Playgrounds. When your toddler begins to test his/her limits and is about to teeter off a ledge or climbs higher than you think they are capable. You can’t live in fear and have to let them grow and learn, no matter how tightly you have to mummify yourself to keep from screaming out in panic.
7. External Influences. Your heart shreds when your child gets his/her feelings hurt by another kid. One of the hardest lessons we learn as parents is that we can’t protect our children from everything and other kids can be downright wicked.
8. Witching Hour. When your sweet innocent children turn into monsters or some other unrecognizable alien. Full moons are a real thing.
9. Sickness. Insurmountable angst occurs when you know it’s a virus that you have to ride out but still keep vigilant watch in case you need to rush to the emergency room, wait for medical tests, or learn that your child is very ill.
10. Twins or more, period. (Stay tuned for a future post on this!)
11. Being Out-Numbered. You have more kids than you have hands, and they gang up on you. You turn your back for a second and suddenly one isn’t in your line of sight. You truly wish you did have eyes in the back of your head.
12. Sadness. When you have to tell your children something that you know will break their hearts.
13. The Future. I know that in the all-too-near future I will be adding an addendum to this list. There are middle-school and high-school problems that I won’t even dare to think about just yet: When they and their friends start driving, parties, drugs and alcohol, dating, broken hearts, etc.
