10.10.2013

Another year has gone by....where does the time go?

In 2 days, the "littler" e will be a year old. And, provided all goes well, the newest, "littlest" e will be born in January. When I think back on the last 3 years, I cannot believe how incredibly blessed we are to have our lovely, healthy family of rambunctious boys.

Not surprisingly, motherhood has been on my mind a lot recently. And I know that people everywhere have talked, thought, vented and ranted about this for years, but I just wanted to put my thoughts down on paper (so to speak).

Being a parent is hard.

I don't care if one is a stay-at-home parent, working parent, single parent, or whatever else -- parenting is hard. Yes, it is often wonderful and rewarding, but seriously, it can be extremely difficult. There are a million things to do, choices to be made, problems and worries to agonize over...and it's seemingly never-ending. And with facebook, the internet, friends, co-workers and everyone else in the world looking over your shoulder (or so it seems), there is just so much judgment -- from others and ourselves.  Breast vs. bottle. Organic vs. non-organic. "Natural" vs medically assisted births. PTO involvement. Extra-curriculars. SAHP vs working. The arguments and criticisms never end. Why do we make this often thankless, relentlessly taxing feat even harder than it is? And why do so many of us feel the need to complain and rant as a way to secretly brag and show off the "badge of honor" that comes with being a parent?

I'm as guilty of all of this as everyone else out there. I'm all for celebrating, asking for help, supporting each other, commiserating at times....but sometimes, I just wish we, as parents, would all stop complaining, whining, judging, comparing, defending our choices and bragging. Parenting is exhausting enough as it is, I don't want to be expending extra energy with all this other nonsense.

*Plop*

That's my big pregnant self inelegantly stepping off of my soapbox.