What are the 5 BEST things about being a parent?

[MrsThierryHenry]

Okay, I'll start. Obviously.

1. It's amazing watching my DS develop and change
2. It's amazing watching him discover the world
3. When I'm feeling low he makes me laugh and cheers me up instantly
4. I'm constantly humbled by the fact that my body could produce such an incredible little person
5. You can be silly in public and no-one bats an eyelid

Too tired to think of five but what strikes me most is how unselfish they make one. I go out to buy myself somthing and come back with something for him instead.

1. 'I lub you mummy'
2. It amazes me how gorgeous they are and I made them
3. Ditto intelligent
4. They love each other so much
5. They occasionally sleep

only 1:Unconditional love.

1. Realising that if your DD is that beautiful she got it from one of you... (50/50 chance you are the beauty and not the beast in the relationship)
2. Being told you 'don't understand' by a 2.5 y.o ... That explains everything!
3. No matter what you achieve in life, mothering a child means you have superceded yourself...
4. Letting go of silly insecurites... you now walk the streets with white marks on your clothes... what is it? Who gives a damn.
5. If you can give birth... you can do anything, marathons, passing your driving test and root canal treatment.

Popsycal, you reminded my how much I love it when my DH calls me "mama"!

1. Watching my dds grow and change and turn into individuals who do nothing i say but nevertheless are wonderful people in their own right (mushy sap aren't i?)

1. Getting to watch all the films i loved when i was a kid again with my dds

1. Bedtime stories where i get to put on the characters voices

1. Basking in the praise when people compliment my dds

1. Everything else

(ok it's not that simple but time is short and dh keeps interrupting my train of thought!)

1 Their wonder at the world and lack of cynicism
2 Watching them sleep
3 Definitely the cuddles MMJ
4 Listening to them laugh/giggle together
5 The smell of them when youve bathed them and they are snuggled up against you in their jamas-priceless

1. the cuddles and love
2. always have someone to talk to.
3. hearing "oh wow!" leap from their lips
4. a readymade excuse not to do things you don't want to do.
5. the never ending beauty of your own offspring.

Yeah yeah yeah - their smell! We've never used shampoo on DS's hair, only water - but it smells GORGEOUS!!!

1. Enjoying the emotional openness of a small child - they love, they hate, they laugh, they cry and none of it comes from anywhere that's not completely genuine.

1. Smell, feel, sound: hair, skin, voice.

1. Having no time left to obsess about myself.

1. Marveling at the development of a little person. It all just happens before your eyes!

1. Re-writing my future and letting go of my past.

1. Listening to her giggles.
2. Looking at her and wondering what she'll chose to do with her life and knowing I gave it to her.
3. She trusts me as she's never known how to distrust anyone.
4. Waking up next to her.
5. Being so smug, I made a beautiful person

Saw this before bedtime & thought it would be a niceuplifting one for a Sunday morning, so am reviving it

1. Thinking ' I made THAT' - marvelling at what grew inside me, and now grows from me.
2. Watching them take bits of me & dh and make them their own
3. Seeing simple things through clean eyes - WOW a pile of leaves/rainbow/cat/squirrel/enormous poo
4. cuddling a sleepy child/baby to sleep in the middle of the night - warm, trusting, bed-smell
5. Singing round Sainsburys, and having people smile at you rather than back away in fear. To be fair they do the latter too sometimes.

Can't think of a single one.

foofi

Wonder what they are.

At this precise moment I can't think of a single 'best thing' about being a parent - I've had both be ill for the last month with chicken pox, sickness and diarrhoea and to be honest there was nothing lovely about being a parent during that time.

It isn't - it's been a bloody nightmare.

MALO that's just a bad month. It doesn't change the overall lovely things about being a parent.

My dd (5) was in HDU last weekend for two nights following an anaphylactic reaction to peanuts so I've had one of the worst weeks of my life but it's just a hard moment. If anything it makes me love dd more.

1. The time when they are in bed asleep in the evening.
2. The time in the morning before they wake up.
3. Pretty much everything they do
4. Watching kids play- the sheer joyfulness of childhood
5. The way they change the world around you and the way you live

Why do people assume that EVERYBODY must enjoy being a parent? Some of us don't find it lovely at all.

OK...so when they're ill I'm supposed to love them more? Right, ok, I'll let you know then after I've caught up with all the washing (sicked on bedding, pooed in knickers) and when I've caught up with all the sleep I lost with all the bad nights.

Yes of course I love my kids but I'm still struggling to find the 5 best things about being a parent!!

1. You're not the centre of your universe anymore [relief]

1. When they are funny.

1. You are challenged every day and made to look at things in a new way.

1. The small triumphs and near disasters, the whole rollicking, changing energy of life when they're around.

1. Oh just the pleasure and the funny stuff, and their noses are nice, and their hair, and their hands and the backs of their necks and how marvellous and yet how boring and commonplace every day is.

I need to start a post...what are the five worst things about being a parent?.....

Point is Malo, everyone could come up with five reasons they don't like being a parent too. These feelings can co-exist, I expect they do in most.