While your children are without a doubt the best thing about being a mom, there are plenty of other benefits to parenthood that they don’t tell you about in antenatal class!
Here are just a few:
1. You get to play again
Playing is fun! Since having children, I have rediscovered my love for hide and seek and playdough!
2. It is funny
I have never laughed as much as I have done since I became a mum. The ridiculously loud wind that you cannot believe has erupted from your tiny baby and the way they sometimes nod off into their dinner; and toddlers just being toddlers guarantee your house will always be filled with laughter!
3. You can get out of doing things
When you have children you always have a perfectly good reason to avoid doing things you don’t want to do! The babysitter cancelled, the toddler is teething, the baby has been up all night, the children are sick…. The possible excuses are endless!
4. Comfortable underwear
Once you have discovered the comfort of cotton bikini briefs you will wonder how you ever wore thongs!
5. Other moms
I can’t tell you how many times other moms have unknowingly saved my life!
The mom in the toy shop who made me feel normal for having a baby who didn’t sleep. The mom who reached out to me after seeing my struggle to leave my crying toddler at preschool for the first time. The mom who convinced me that I wasn’t a failure for needing to take antidepressants.
Then there are the mothers I have never even met who have offered kindness and support via Facebook groups or online forums.
My mom.
The moms at the school gate and the children’s centre.
They have all been there with an understanding smile when you are having a bad day. There is a real sense of ‘being in this together’ and if you reach out when you are struggling, you will always find a hand to pull you up!
6. You toughen up
Parenting is not always easy. But fortunately, when you become a mom you gain the ability to deal with challenges you never could have handled prekids!
You find strength you never knew you had. You could be sick, sleep-deprived, stressed or feeling low, yet somehow you manage to get up, get dressed and take care of your family.
7. You can keep fit without even trying
Forget the gym. Once you have children any excess fat will soon drop off because you will never sit down again.
What with rocking babies to sleep, chasing toddlers and playing in the park to pushing prams and doing all the laundry. You are probably far more fit than you have ever been!
8. Coffee
While you may have liked coffee before you became a mom, now you love it, dream of it, live for it.
Next to my family (and possibly wine), coffee is the best thing in my life. Not only does it give me a feeling of unadulterated euphoria, it convinces me I can do All The Stuff. That I am capable of anything!
Coffee is to moms what spinach is to Popeye.
9. Cuddles
There is just nothing nicer than feeling your baby cuddled up on your chest, your smiling toddler rushing into your arms or your child snuggling up with you on the sofa!
You feel warm with love and a sense of being exactly where you need to be.
10. You don’t change, you evolve
You don’t lose yourself when you have kids; you find a stronger and wiser version of yourself.
When we become parents, all the best and worst parts of ourselves become magnified. We want to be better. We are so determined to set a good example for our little ones that we strive to be the best person we can be.
From: Good Housekeeping UK
Also read:
10 arguments you will have with your partner once you have a baby
The trendiest baby names of 2016
The very good reason you should keep your baby’s teeth
