Becoming a parent is one of the most exciting things that can happen to a person. Whether you created half of your little one or you came to be their parent through adoption or surrogacy, you’re now responsible for raising a whole entire human. They could be the next president, a doctor, an NBA star (if they’re tall enough...), a journalist, a scientist, or any number of other wonderful things. But it’s up to you to love them, feed them, guide them and teach them about the world. Parents, you have one of the most challenging and overwhelming jobs on the planet, but as I’m sure many of you would attest, it can also be one of the most rewarding.
But along with all of the beautiful “first word” moments and heartwarming things your children do, there are countless dirty diapers and occasions of peeing the bed, spilling grape juice on your favorite rug, accidentally shattering a window with a baseball and getting in trouble for attending a party with alcohol… So it’s vital that parents approach life with a sense of humor. And what better way to share your parenting mishaps and misadventures with the world than to tweet them in solidarity with all of your fellow moms and dads of the world?
Especially when you’re a parent of young children, it can feel extremely isolating to be alone with your little ones and your thoughts every day. So by sharing your parenting experiences online, others can be reminded that they’re not alone in this journey of raising children. You can rest assured knowing that you’re never the first one to make any of the “mistakes” you find yourself making along the way, and in fact, they might be much more common than you even realized. Plus, with the pressure to be a “perfect parent” that many moms and dads feel from social media influencers, it’s always nice to be reminded that the perfect parent does not exist.
Liz Krieger wrote an article for Today’s Parent in 2021 discussing how she loves her children but she doesn’t like parenting, and many moms and dads related to her struggles. She explained that she was first hesitant to open up about the fact that parenting is not always sunshine and rainbows, for fear of judgment from fellow parents, but as it turned out, she wasn’t alone. “Over the past few years, in more and more conversations with other moms at drop-off and pickup, in Facebook groups and chat rooms, this spiky truth—that parenting is something that many women struggle to enjoy, or at least find themselves loathing a decent percentage of the time—has been seeping out,” Krieger writes.
Krieger goes on to note that there has been a rise in the “honest mom” genre online in recent years, but along with the moms sharing hilarious and less glamorous moments of parenting, she wanted to be open about the most painful, anger-inducing and frustrating moments too. “The truth is, parenting is mostly hard and thankless,” one suburban mom of two young girls who works full-time from home told Today's Parent. “The sheer, repetitive monotony of it all is a big part of it for me: packing lunches, unpacking backpacks, washing out containers, monitoring school work. I just don’t like it.”
Krieger goes on to explain that parenting comes along with many challenges aside from simply raising and taking care of children. There’s the increased household tasks and child-care responsibilities, the youth-sports industry that parents are expected to support their children’s participation in, and the pressure online to “do it all” as parents.
“All the nitty-gritty jobs of parenting (the grilling of cheese, the sopping up of fluids) can sort of suck,” Krieger writes. “And while I know it’s part of the deal and it has to get done, it’s not really where I shine and not an obvious part of the long game. What’s important to me and what I value most is the relationship part: the bond between me and my daughters. I suck at making lunches (or any meals), but I’m great at talking to them for hours, teaching them stuff about words, books and puns and making it clear that I am there for them, no matter what.”
And thankfully for all parents, their kids do grow up. There will come a time, around the age of 18, where they will need their parents less and less. Sure, they might still call you when they get a flat tire at 1am or when they aren’t sure how they’re going to pay their rent that month. But they won’t be relying on mom and dad all the time, and then parents can focus on what they do best and what’s most important to them: nurturing their relationships with their children. But in the moments where it feels like parenting is just too much to handle, it’s important to find ways to relax or take a break.
“No one would expect an ER nurse to work seven days a week, all year long,” Alyson Schafer, family counselor and parenting expert, told Today’s Parent. “You shouldn’t feel guilty for taking time, and to be good in the moments when you’re on duty, you need periods of recovery. It may just be saying to your partner, ‘I am going to go to the coffee shop and read my novel while you do tuck-ins’—whatever it takes for you to recover.”
