I'm getting increasingly frustrated with my dear friend, who is lovely and selfless and doesn't have a bad bone in her body, but seems to think that she knows all about the complexity of raising a child and the way it changes your life and capabilities, because she has nieces and nephews who she minds now and again, and works in a school. I have no doubt that she is fully capable of looking after kids, she is in fact a complete natural with them. She works with children with SEN and other disabilities and is also great at her job.
However, what is really grating on me is that she comments on others parenting, gives unsolicited advice on how to raise a child, has a complete lack of empathy for the things that come with parenting such as lower household standards/different priorities etc. I have been trying to gently point out when she goes off on one, that its not always as simple or clear cut as she thinks it is but she just refuses to see it.
This past year she has been studying, plus had a long term house guest who is messy and inconsiderate, it all got a bit on top of her and considered getting a cleaner as she never had enough hours in the day. She got v stressed at one point. I suggested that it was good practice for when she has kids in a jokey way but she completely shot me down saying that having a child would be much easier as she would have full control, would have a routine/plan, would do xyz in a day etc. She cannot see that having a small child over night, only doing fun things, having a bag fully packed of everything you need and managing to get through it and drop them back home 24 hours later is not what its like to live it every day.
I know that you have no idea if the full on-ness of having a small child until you have one but surely you can see that its not the same as a sleepover or a day at work, leaving it all behind at 5pm??????