Becoming a parent is a humbling experience. You might go into it thinking you’ll be a certain kind of parent and won’t ever allow your children to do certain things, only for reality to not quite align with those expectations. In a thread on Reddit, parents started discussing the things they thought their own kids would never, ever do. Unsurprisingly, things did not go as planned for any of them.
It can be kind of easy to judge parents before becoming a parent yourself.
Sometimes, it’s also easy to think that you’d do things differently and certain things wouldn’t happen on your watch or within your family. But many Redditors quickly realized how wrong they were after having children themselves.
“There were times I’d go over to my sister’s house and watch her kids while she worked,” one parent wrote. “I’d usually pick up things while they were napping, and always mumble to myself, ‘Why doesn’t she just pick this stuff up and put it away???’ Then my kids were born and now I get it.”
Another person thought back to how they used to think “MY kids would NEVER run wild through a store or throw fits!” Of course, this turned out to not be the case. “I remembered that statement when my two year old threw herself to the ground shrieking at the top of her lungs after pulling several toys off the Target toy aisle shelf,” the parent recalled.
Preferences and ideals might not change much, but energy and priorities certainly can.
Because, yes, most of us would probably prefer to have a mess-free house. But that doesn’t mean it’s easy to achieve. “We said no toys in the living room and keep it a clean, nice space before having kids,” one parent wrote. “Two kids later and we have a train table, 4 boxes stacked with toys, a Paw Patrol lookout tower, kick and play mat and baby bouncer all in the small confinements of our living room. At any given time you can find a train caboose or dinosaur under a couch pillow.”
Similarly, a lot of people have strong opinions about screen time, but becoming a parent can change things. “Before kids: I will never give my child a screen just to keep them quiet,” another parent shared. “After kids: here is an iPad, two shows queued up, and a pair of noise canceling headphones. I need twelve minutes of silence or I am going to lose my mind.”
Someone else wrote that they used to question the parents who seemed exhausted by their kids being home during summer break. Now they get it. “20-something year old me: ‘All of these parents act like it’s such a burden to have their kids home from school in the summer. They’re your kids! Why are you acting like it’s so hard to have them home?'” the person wrote. “41 year old me: ‘Someone isn’t going to survive this summer if y’all don’t quit arguing and being rude to each other!’ while counting down the days until school starts.”
Some topics came up repeatedly.
Like eating habits, for example. Numerous parents were adamant that they wouldn’t have any picky eaters and their kids wouldn’t eat things like chicken nuggets and french fries. That was before they actually became parents, though.
” I worked as a server for years and grew tired of the picky little ones when it came to food, food preparation, and their preferences. No way I’ll allow that someday, I said,” someone recalled. “Cue the little one that will ONLY eat peanut butter as her protein. And the big one? Doesn’t like to eat the colors Red or Orange. So no ketchup (but BBQ sauce is ok) and apples are ok as long as the red skins are peeled off.” Yeah, that sounds about right.
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