What are your parenting challenges?

[2022betterbegood]

Just an acknowledgement to the world really that it's true you can never imagine how parenting will challenge you.

You go into it knowing it's not going to be a walk in the park but until you're going through it, nothing can really prepare you for what it's like for you.

For me it's patience, I can't believe how much patience I have deep down and need to draw on frequently (constant teether and non crawler who is very frustrated, so there's a lot of whinging, rightly so, I'm sure I'd be the same!).

The logistics. Jesus Christ the logistics. DH and I both work full time and it's just never ending calendar comparing and Google invites and switching off and all it takes is DS to spike a fever and be out of nursery for a day or two and the whole thing collapses like a house of cards.

Taking each day as it comes. Our big struggle for ages has been brutally early mornings (like 4.30am, but for a while it was even worse than that). Every now and then she'll wake up at 6 and EVERY time that happens I can't help but get excited that maybe we're turning a corner, and every time I'm disappointed, and it makes me SO grumpy. Also, I can totally see that permissiveness will be a challenge as she grows (not what I would have expected at all, but turns out doing the easier thing in the moment is verrrrry appealing)

I need a lot of alone time, I'm very happy in my own company, which I just don't get.

This. I often stay up after the babies' 4am feed and start my day just to have a hot coffee and read the paper in peace.

I also (having gone from 1 child to 3) battle with my own perfectionism. DD had everything - me just about full-time, lots of thoroughly researched practice about birth, sleep, weaning, clothes, childcare, Montessori practice, you name it. At four she is absolutely extraordinary (to me, anyway!) and I feel really happy with the decisions we made and the way she has grown up. And I know that there is no way on god's green earth that these two will have the same experience.

Discipline. Dealing with disrespect and awful attitude