I remember the days during my first pregnancy, and the things that people would say. Some of those things were wonderful, and exciting and others were down right terrifying. I was told little boys were wild, that I better go to the movies then because I wouldn’t be doing that anymore after I had kids, and that my husband and I would struggle. You’re not going to sleep, you’re not going to be able to shower and your house will always be a hot mess. Your life is about to be chaos – it will be completely different than how it is now. To someone who really didn’t have a ton of experience with babies and kids in general, it sure made me wonder, were they right? Would I be a good parent, would it be total chaos? Six years later, I wouldn’t consider myself a parenting expert, since in reality I’m still very much in the beginning; but I’ve a learned that maybe some of those things had a fraction of truth to them, but in reality there is so much more to parenthood, little boys, and life in general. Parenthood has not only taught me the basics of raising babies, but also a few life lessons that have changed me, for the better.

4 Things Parenthood Has Taught Me

Time Is Precious

All of those things that people told me; you won’t sleep, you won’t shower, your life will be chaos. They weren’t wrong, but what I failed to notice in the thick of it, is how fast it really all goes by. Sure, it wasn’t fun being sleep deprived, but I would be sleep deprived again just to hold my sweet boys as newborns again. With my first baby, it was all so new, and your life does change so dramatically, it can be hard to keep up. I am totally guilty of wishing some of those days away, thanks to temper tantrums, or being tired, etc; or wasting the days filling it with busyness instead of enjoying my babies.

People tell you it goes fast, but for some reason that didn’t fully hit me until this year. I sent my oldest to Kindergarten this year and for me, it was the realization that he was no longer a baby. In 13 short years, he will be off to college, I’m sure a good two feet taller than me and hopefully the gentleman I aspire to raise him as. But, wasn’t he just a baby?! You blink and all of the tantrums, sleeplessness and snuggles fade. I have loved every stage so far, and I’m sure I will enjoy what is to come, but I’ve become much more aware of time. So I find myself playing the games, laying with them a little longer at night and trying my hardest to not distract myself from watching them grow.

Patience Is Hard To Come By

I think at this point God is tired of me asking for patience, because I pray for it every day. I’ve always been a fairly well structured person, I do things fast and I like to go go go. I didn’t actually realize how impatient I am, until I had children. There are several times each day, that my patience is tested and I’m trying my hardest to be the patient parent my kids need.

So, I’m learning to be a person that sometimes goes at a slower pace (the walking pace a three year old) and accepts when things derail and don’t go my way. If our schedule doesn’t run fully on time, that is ok, it needs to be ok! I mean what good is it going to do me to blow up because we didn’t actually make it to the store before we had to head to pick-up time. I’m learning to bob and weave and adjust and be ok with it. I find the more I challenge myself to be patient with my children, it flows over to other parts of my life too; my marriage, my job and sometimes when I’m driving (no guarantees the rage doesn’t come out).

Messes are Inevitable

I remember people loved to tell me how messy kids were and they were going to “destroy” my house. I’ve always been a little uptight about my house and how clean it is, so this one made me a little nervous. I told myself I could handle it, I would simply teach my kids how to clean up after themselves and would keep our toy collection to a manageable amount. Y’all I could laugh out loud at my old self. It doesn’t matter if you take away every toy in your house, or watch your kids like a hawk; the one second you walk away to get laundry out of the dryer, they’ll bite every apple in the fridge or dump an entire loaf of bread in the playroom floor.

I love it when you see those memes on Facebook of a mess kids have made and people say, “where were the parents?!” Kids are ninjas and find a way to do something destructive in the amount of time it takes you to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I’ve had a human turd in my laundry basket, remotes in toilets, entire boxes of cereal dumped on the kitchen floor and oatmeal all of our dog – you can’t make this stuff up. So what did I learn from this, well I’ve learned how to clean like a boss and create spaces in our home that can withstand these messes. Instead of being mad or angry over the mess, I just try my best to manage it. I keep things organized the best I can and clean on a schedule, including picking up everything at the end of the day. I do teach the boys to clean up after themselves, my oldest son has become quite the clean little guy, so for that I’m thankful.

Love and Empathy

Parenthood has turned me soft y’all. Not that I wasn’t before, but the part about loving your child like no other is true. It’s a deep seeded love, the kind that you would throw yourself in front of a bus to protect; and it flows into other parts of my life too. I can’t attend a wedding or watch anything with kids in it that’s emotionally charged, without crying. I have a much deeper love and appreciation for my husband, he is truly an amazing parent. I get deep y’all, what can I say? When someone shares something that impacts children in any negative way, I can’t help but want to do something. I was recently turned on to the diaper crisis in America – 1 in 3 American families struggle to provide diapers for their family. We take so much for granted, and there are families not only around the world, but right here in America that can’t provide essential needs for their children like food, shelter and in this case diapers.

Huggies® is a founding sponsor of the National Diaper Bank Network; a network that provides nearly 280,000 children across America with diapers each month.   Not only can you make donations direct through their website, this month you can give, just by buying something you already need; (well we already need) diapers. Now through April 29th every pack of Huggies® diapers, pull-ups or wipes purchased at Walgreens, triggers a donation of a day’s worth of diapers to a family in need through the National Diaper Bank and the Huggies® No Baby Unhugged program. Huggies® and Walgreens are aiming to donate 1.5 million diapers and 250,000 wipes nationwide to the National Diaper Bank Network, through this program.

Parenthood is challenging at times, but I have an overwhelming sense of gratitude toward being a parent. I feel so incredibly blessed to be a mom, even if it isn’t always easy – it’s truly beautiful.

What are some of your parenthood lessons?

-Brooke

Pin me for later!