I've been thinking about something that's been bothering me lately, and I'd love to hear from parents who have found themselves saying phrases like "just wait until..." or "you'll see when you have kids" to expecting parents.
I'm currently pregnant, and what prompted this post was an interaction with a friend who made these kinds of comments completely unprompted - I hadn't even expressed any opinions about parenting or claimed it would be easy. It got me thinking about why this seems to be such a common response to pregnancy announcements.
What's particularly interesting to me is how unique this seems to be to parenting. We don't generally respond this way in other life situations. Imagine telling someone starting a new job, "Just wait until you've been there a year - you'll hate it!" Or telling a newly engaged couple, "You'll see how hard marriage really is!" We'd probably consider those responses pretty inappropriate and unnecessarily negative.
So I'm genuinely curious (not ranting) - if you've made these comments before, what was your mindset at the time? I wonder if it comes from a place of wanting to prepare others, or perhaps it's a reflection of your own challenging experiences?
I'd especially love to hear from those who've caught themselves doing this - what do you think drives you to make these comments?