Parenthood Sucks Sometimes

When I first started mentally writing this post I was going to call it Being a Mother Can Suck Sometimes, but then as I started thinking about it, its not just mothers who have it hard at times being a dad is pretty dam hard too. While I appreciate that even people who don’t have children have hard times I think that there is something particularly overwhelming about being responsible for little people that makes things extra challenging.

Basically when its all boiled down there is one thing you need to learn to be a parent, suck it up and do what has to be done. This includes but is not limited to cleaning up after your toddlers poo explosion at 2am on a freezing cold night, working that overtime when you feel miserable with a virus so that the kids can get the new shoes they need, it means taking your 5 day old bay to their big brothers birthday at Maccas so you can be their for your big boy.

The sucking it up starts before bubs even draws their first breath. When I was pregnant with my daughter I suffered terribly with morning sickness and more times than I care to remember heaving my guts out and then continuing on my way to work. I had to pull over so many times on the freeway I wondered if folks thought I was the local drunk.

When the baby arrives there are all the sacrifices that you are expecting, broken sleep, cleaning up poo, never ending washing but what you can’t really understand or prepare yourself for is the amazing fatigue that takes over and how you just have to push through it. Many times I have thought that if parenting was a job I would quite but it’s not a job. You can’t quit. Your on call 24/7 for what I am assuming to be a minimum of 16 years.

My dear husband is a super star for sucking it up. I have seen him having worked 12 days straight come home help put the kids to bed before he washes the dishes.  A few months back he woke up feeling ill on the one day I work outside of the home. The day I rely on him extra, to get us all out the door and be where we need to be. As I am rushing around getting the kids ready he is outside putting the washing on the line as he greens out. Yes he probably should have stayed at home but he didn’t want to let his team down or miss out on the overtime that we were counting on.

There is a funny rush of joy, pride and relief when you all make it through a tricky patch. I may have never climbed Mount Everest or walked the Kokoda trail. But I have survived the weekly food shopping with a tantruming toddler while I myself had infected impacted wisdom teeth.

I don’t know if you could truthfully say it gets easier as your kids get older or maybe we haven’t reached the golden age yet. What I find does help is the understanding and empathy your kids get as they grow up. The other day as my dear boy was vomiting and I was taking care of him he said ‘oh Mum I'm so sorry that you have to clean up my vomit on your birthday.’ I looked him and said ‘its ok kiddo its what mummies do’ and it is. I have hundreds of these stories as I am sure ever one does because as parents we are all just sucking it up and doing what has to be done.