The Most Surprising Part of Parenthood

Finish Line: Your Strollerderby Recap for the Week of February 18, 2007

Strollerderby — Sat, 24 Feb 2007 20:50:58 GMT

Welcome to this, the first installment of our weekly roundup of Strollerderby's best. Realizing that

re: The Most Surprising Part of Parenthood

Kymba — Sat, 24 Feb 2007 06:12:05 GMT

I'm surprised that I'm pretty good at this parenting thing. I can't say that about many things.

On the other hand, I've never been a frightened person in my life - but now I worry about driving with her in the car with me, I worry about our house being broken into while we're asleep, I worry about her not getting good nutrition, I worry about somebody taking her....

I would've never thought I could be this worrywart.

re: The Most Surprising Part of Parenthood

Anne Glamore — Sat, 24 Feb 2007 01:40:31 GMT

How these little people who once required me to do everything for them can not only scramble eggs and take their own showers, but have opinions.

And no one told me 2/3 of my boys would care so much about hair and fashion. I'd die of exhaustion if I had girls.

re: The Most Surprising Part of Parenthood

Becky — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 22:22:03 GMT

I never knew babies had enough, umm, power to poop up to their necks. In one blow.

re: The Most Surprising Part of Parenthood

Xdm — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 22:05:35 GMT

We laugh. We laugh a lot. Usually at him. Then he starts laughing because we laughing and then it's with him.

re: The Most Surprising Part of Parenthood

Adelheid — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 21:51:57 GMT

Every day I'm suprised at how hard it is. How does the cutiest little bundle of wiggly sweetness turn me into an exhausted crazy person?

re: The Most Surprising Part of Parenthood

creative-type dad — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 21:24:12 GMT

Enjoying it much, much more than I thought I ever would.

re: The Most Surprising Part of Parenthood

Ninotchka — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 20:55:32 GMT

My willingness to do it, day after day, without question, as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

(But when you think about our innate individualistic tendencies, it's really not.)

(Or perhaps I should say MY innate individualistic tendencies.)

How much I adore it despite how soul sucking it can be.

re: The Most Surprising Part of Parenthood

MissB — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 20:50:50 GMT

How sleep deprivation could make a person so mentally and emotionally fragile. How little I was embarrassed by public breastfeeding.

In the opposite vein, I was recently at a party where a childless couple asked me if we had a Diaper Genie. I told them we were actually on our second as our twins managed to wear the first one out in eighteen months. Then they wanted to know if it "worked."

Me: You mean, does it keep the room from smelling stinky?

Them: Yeah.

Me: Well, kind of. Really, there's no way to keep a bedroom that has poopy diapers in it from smelling to a certain degree.

Them: OMG, I would just take every poopy diaper and tie it up and take it downstairs to the trash. That way it would never smell in the house, you know?

Me: ...

Really, say I had a magic wand that could change things about our life. And I had to come up with a list of crap I would change about child rearing in order of importance to me. Poopy smelling nurseries wouldn't even crack the top twenty. It's amazing, the difference between what you think is going to be a big deal before the kids come, and then what reality dictates to be important.

re: The Most Surprising Part of Parenthood

RachelZ — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 20:45:03 GMT

I'm surprised that I am SO GOOD at it. I have sucked at 99% of the jobs I have had (and I counted - I have held more than 70 jobs in the past 19 years). Sometimes I was bad at the actual job, other times I was bad at the getting up and going to work part, and most of the time I was really really REALLY bad at the "playing well with others" part. I'm just not cut out to work.

But this job, this parenting job - I am very good at this. I look forward to getting up every day and dealing with my 6-and-half-month old boss. I love singing the same six songs over and over and over again. I love listening to her babble and yell and roar. I love watching her fling food at me and I don't mind cleaning it up.

I don't know if I'm good at this because I HAVE to be or if I'm good at this because I am meant to be so. Either way, this is the worst-paying and most rewarding job I have ever held. After 31 years of ME ME ME, I am finally putting someone else first and I don't mind a bit. THAT is surprising.