Parenting is a rollercoaster of emotions (for the kids and us), and sometimes it's the moments you don't expect that hit your heart most of all.
Here are five examples of emotional parenting moments:
1. Birthdays
As a parent, you tend to be focused on the present and the future. You're trying to do your best in the current situation that's been thrown at you, and you also try to look at the bigger picture ahead. You don't often look back at previous stages, as proven when you're faced with a child younger than your own and you have no idea what to do with them. Every year on each of my children's birthdays, however, I allow myself a bit of time to think back and feel a bit emotional about the things that have passed.
2. Childcare drop-offs
Before I was a parent, I'd heard about the children who cling to their mum's legs (they seem to do it less for dads) and wail about being left behind. I also heard the logical reply, which is that the crying stops as soon as the mum leaves, and the child then goes on to have a perfectly happy day. This had me prepared with plenty of logic when my own child began this caper … except that logic and parenting don't always go together. I'm pretty sure that when my little one is crying, "Don't leave me!" at the door of the childcare centre, she's actually being traumatised for life, and I spend the day jittering with anxiety as I recall her tears.
3. Losing teeth
My oldest daughter currently has a mismatched mouth: several baby teeth, a couple of adult teeth and a few gaps show that she's in a transition between being a little child and becoming an older kid. This is perfectly normal and, I would have thought prior to this transition beginning, a very unemotional time for a parent. Except that each of those baby teeth signifies many, many, MANY hours of lost sleep during her babyhood and toddlerhood. We fought for those teeth to appear, and we fell into the deepest of happy slumbers when the specks of white finally cut through. And now they're all falling out. It hardly seems fair.
4. Dealing with tantrums
Clearly a tantrum is emotional for a child, but I never realised how exhausting they can be for parents to deal with until I was in that moment myself. Over time I've learnt not to take day-to-day tantrums personally, but those massive meltdowns that sometimes flare up are another story. They have the ability to drain us and leave us bereft and ready to lie down alongside the sobbing child. And sometimes, I admit, that's exactly what I do.
5. Watching movies and reading books
If you've seen Inside Out recently, you might get this one. Yep, I cried alongside many other parents in the packed cinema. I admit to being a bit of a sook with this stuff, though, crying at anything that even vaguely hints at my kids growing up or doing something amazing in their future adulthood. Oh, The Places You'll Go! is a tear-jerker every time, as is that part in Mary Poppins when the father realises he loves his kids, and even watching the kids sing Let It Go for the millionth time wells me up.
Which parenting moments do you find surprisingly emotional?
Comments