Being a mother: as hard as you expected? Would you do it had you known what it entailed?

[ReeseWitherfork]

I keep seeing things online which essentially say that if more women realised how hard raising children was then they probably wouldn’t do it. Apparently it’s one of those things that’s “never talked about” and yet I feel like it’s constantly talked about.

Do you think the regularity in which this point is made is reflective of how popular the opinion is?

I find parenting hard (emotionally, logistically) but also so very rewarding. And the latter monumentally outweighs the former. I really wasn’t naive to how laborious parenting is; maybe that’s helped? Are there women that go into parenting with different expectations? But also, perhaps my opinion is swayed by how useful my partner is. I see too often on here how different the reality is for some women. He is my equal, and he gives me both ample support and breaks, so maybe that helps me to not feel so weighed down with motherhood.

That’s my little brain-dump. Just wanted to open a discussion really… see what others thought?

If I knew I would be doing it alone, I would probably not have done it.

And I don't mean co-parenting. I mean alone.

DSs dad knobbed off for a few years, and I am estranged from most of my family, so I did it alone.

It was only when I moved to the other side of the country that I learned to cope.

DSs dad came back into his life when he was 13, and it became easier. He's 22 now, and of course, I don't regret him at all.

I actually find it much harder than expected now my daughter is 7. I thought by this point things would be easier - and they are in some ways obviously - but she's really hard work and I'm constantly worrying about her and my parenting.

The baby stage I found harder in terms of sleep - it was so much worse than I expected - but otherwise I found it easy to adapt. And I was young and very ill prepared!

@Kiki1703 I don't know. What's your experience been?