What do you wish you had known before you had your DC? Tell us for your chance to win a copy of Why Did Nobody Tell Me?: Home Truths Every Parent Needs to Know.

[RebeccaMumsnet]

Hello. This week we published Why Did Nobody Tell Me?: Home Truths Every Parent Needs to Know, which is the paperback version of The Mumsnet Rules.

And we wanted to mark its publication and nudge you towards a bookstore with a small but perfectly formed competition-ette.

For those who don't already know, Why Did Nobody Tell Me? is full of common sense and good cheer to steady you during the trickier patches of child-wrangling - told from the perspective of those who've been there, worn the (puree-splattered) T-shirt, and more or less emerged in a fit enough state to boggle at the PFB madnesses of their early parenting days.

So, what we're asking you wise folks now, in a competition-y way, is to tell us what you wish you'd known before you had children.

Please post your "in hindsight" confessions/admissions/witticisms here. We'll pick out ten winners from all who post - and send each of them a spanking new copy of Why Did Nobody Tell Me?

Good luck!

My boy is 8 and those rules pretty much still apply, Coldcup!
The amounts of food have increased though. (For the boy, not the dog.)

If at all possible, try to encourage your children in their early years to develop the inevitable monomaniacal obsession along lines that you can bear. I have actively steered DS (3.10yo) towards dinosaurs and animals because I cannot sustain insane conversations about diggers, cars and Thomas the Fucking Tank Engine for more than about a minute without developing a deep and lasting feeling of despondency. However, I can chat endlessly about lemurs and pachycephalosauruses without resorting to much gin.

I don't know if I can replicate this trick with DD (15 weeks) but as I also cannot bear princesses, ballet or fairies, she also may have to be fooled into worshipping all creatures great, small, extinct and heavily armoured.

To take babys socks off BEFORE you change a poo

You know all that brain power you gave to work?
After DCs it doesn't go away, but neither can you use it for remembering where you left the keys/cup of tea etc, or names, or things you were going to do today.
Your brain power will be very effectively used to remember:
-The names of everyone on cbeebies
-The names of everything related to the DCs monomaniacal obsession (my DS was obsessed with everything, now 10, he's a super multi geek)
-which socks/shoes/hat your DC had on this morning (as you retrace your steps again to retrieve them)
-your DCs' complex schedules, how they work logistically, and who will be dropping off/picking up on the way to where) I have often puzzled why I can remember their stuff but not mine, it must be less important

You will forget to go to at least one assembly in their time at school. DO NOT get the photo they took at the end of it, your DC's tear-streaked face will break your heart every time you see it, and you'll be forced to hide it Dorian Grey style

That your life might not necessarily be over when you have a child, it might just be beginning. Yes, you leave your old life behind, but you might find, as I did, that you can't see the value in your old life at all, that when you look back on it it seems dull and empty. That even though it can be tiring, frustrating, boring, worrying, and so many other negative things, overall it can be absolutely wonderful. Since having a child I feel like I've found my place in the world.

People talk a lot about it being "hard work" and "life changing" which it is, but for a lot of people I think, and definitely for me, it's the best thing that ever happened to me and I could have done it earlier.

One day you will open your mouth and hear your parents' words come out including things you forgot they used to say to you.

You reframe minor assault as affection (when after everyone gets gentle cuddles goodnight the 7yr old launches himself at you jamming his shoulder into your throat).

That guilt is an utter waste of time if the reason you are feeling guilty is despite the fact you've done the best you can.

That you have deeper reserves of patience than you know, but DCs will always plumb the depths of those reserves.

This Too Shall Pass. This is both good, for the grotty bits, and bad, for the lovely bits.

It is ok not to glory in the joys of parenthood every single waking moment. This does not mean you don't love your children.

That you can't protect them from everything bad in the world, but you can help them cope with it .

Being up half the night trying to get them to sleep when they are babies was infinitely preferable to being up half the night wondering where they are and if they are safe when they are teenagers.

Thats friends with sleepy babies will be 'supportive' but only when they have a true shocker of a no sleep night do they then understand the breaking effect it has on you when it happens night after night after night....
That people all have an opinion on when if you should be at work
That if you did want to stay at home or work pt you need to think about it when considering careers and husbands

Yes, getting them to 18 alive is an achievement - well done you - but no, the worry does not stop there, nor do the sleepless nights. When you ask parents of 40 yr olds when it does stop they give you that same look people gave you when you asked if childbirth really did hurt

Kveta thanks for that

That pushing your child on a French swing is exactly the same as pushing them on a British swing. It will just cost you about three grand more.

Never let your nipples air-dry!

That co-sleeping is absolutely fine and was the ONLY way I got any sleep for 15 months.

Why did nobody tell me that the worry over your 'little one' when pregnant will worsen once the baby comes along and will last until the day you die. Now I understand why my mum was like she was!

That you should lock the door when you arrive home from hospital with your new baby....14 members of family on the first day was obscene!!!

Also, I heard the mantra 'by 6 weeks you will have a great routine and everything will fit into place'...pffft...it didn't and made me freak out as I thought it should!!! we got there in our own time!!

Also babies don't read and therefore are incapable of following the groundbreaking, totally foolproof, get your baby to do what YOU want immediately books that I thought would teach me how to have the most obedient baby ever!!!

But most importantly, enjoy every second, it's bloody hard work but they are tiny for such a short period of time!!!

I wish I had known about Mumsnet.

Breastfeeding does NOT help you to get your figure back, especially if you need to eat biscuits constantly to keep your energy up.

TV is not bad...it is Heaven sent .

Playmobil and Lego may be great toys, but once you've bought one, you're hooked in forever, and in for a lifetime of picking up, sorting and searching for storage solutions.

That the amount of time you spend beating yourself up over not doing the whole breast feeding thing successfully is so not worth it and before you know it everyone who successfully breast fed is moving onto bottles! But at least you're a pro with those by then.......

That fertility isn't a given.

You do not have to change all of your bedclothes/ clothes if your baby sicks or wees on them. Soak it up/ rub it in with a muslin and carry on with your day!

Ah. just remembered what my username is

Ha ha ha!

That newborns can be so sleey that they conk out while feeding before they're actually full up. Would've saved so much time and stress trying everything else first if I'd known she was waking because she was still hungry...

That no matter what advice you're given (by family or even random strangers) your dc will do it their way.

And that there's always more poo. Much much more....