I don’t
know if you’re aware of this, but being a parent is hard. Really, really hard.
And it is hard to love something that can at times be so grueling. But if you
were to ask me about my kids, you’d see a big smile across my face and I would
talk for five minutes about each of them, telling you how amazing, creative, sweet
and gorgeous beings they are.
Loving
parenthood is hard. Loving my kids is easy.
Every now
and then though, I try to actively remind myself of some of the awesome things
about parenthood. Here are eight benefits that no one ever told me about. They
may surprise you, perhaps as much as they surprised me.
1.
Kids help to make you cooler
I have to
qualify this by saying that when I was younger, coolness was determined by the
kind of music you listened to. I grew up on musicals and country music, and in
my teens my favourite bands were The Beatles and Queen.
Since I was a teen in South Auckland in the 90s, my taste in music pretty much solidified
my freakishness amongst my peers.
But now…I
am so tuned in to what is new and hip! (I might have just defeated my argument
by using the word ‘hip’).
My kids
like songs by Katy Perry, Jessie J, Ed Sheeran, The Black Keys – and I know who
all these people are. Even more impressive is that I like the songs as well.
I can’t
tell you what a new and exciting experience it is to be modern.
2.
You learn that you can survive on
very little sleep
This is not
an excuse to moan, it really is a great thing about being a parent. I always
hear that you need 7 or 8 hours sleep every night, and I strictly adhered to
this pre-parenthood. To this day my mum reminds me of how early I would go to
bed as a teenager, and I would bang on the walls if the TV was too loud.
So you can
imagine how anxious I was about the sleepless nights coming my way when I had
my first babies. But now I can honestly say that I have become accustomed to
tiredness being my normal state of being – and I can now get so much more done!
3.
You get to watch kids’ movies
It is a
blessing to watch the movies from your childhood and appreciate them again as
your children get to watch and enjoy them for the first time. I am very proud
of the fact that they love the musicals that I loved as a kid – Mary Poppins, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, and there is nothing cuter than
watching your kids in hysterics watching Donald O’Connor sing Make ‘Em
Laugh in Singing in the Rain.
But even if
you’re not a fan of the old classics, you can look a little more normal going
to see the latest Pixar if you take someone who is in the age group the film is
aimed at. And let’s face it, who doesn’t want to see the latest Pixar?
4.
You’re allowed to play on
playgrounds again
Recently I
was in a playground with my little ones when a couple of teenagers decided to
come and play. I felt myself tisk-tisking at them. How dare they come and play on the see-saw! I was thinking this when I was at
the top of a slide. So what was the difference? I had a passport. And by
passport, I mean children.
I remember
dreading turning 10, because that was the age that you were no longer allowed
to play on the McDonald’s playground. This was back when it was a real
playground – not the
colourful plastic cages
they have now.
But now, as
long as I have at least one of my passports with me, I’m allowed to play! My favourites are swings and slides. And now I have an
excuse to play on them again! Yipeeeeee!
5.
The news becomes heartbreaking
Suddenly
when I had kids a light went on and every hurt child in the world became my
child. I know this doesn’t sound like a benefit, but it is a strangely
wonderful and painful thing to find out how much you can care.
6.
You have an excuse for having a
messy house
Let me tell
you a secret – I always struggled to have a clean house even before I had kids.
But when you have little kids, let alone four like me, people's expectations of
your cleanliness can plummet very low.
There have
been occasions when I have mentioned to someone that the house is messy, or I
have so much cleaning to do and I usually hear something like “Don’t worry about it, you’ve got four kids!”
I get the
impression that I could have the house covered with piles of washing,
dishes and rubbish – the kind of thing that you would see on Hoarders and I’d
still hear, “Don’t worry about it, you’ve got four
kids!” Perhaps that is
what people think my house is like and that is why I don’t get many visitors.
There have
been rare occasions when someone has been daring enough to pay us a visit, and
they have commented on how clean the house is. “How
do you do it with four kids?” Well I’ll never share the secret behind the clean house, but if you do
come to my house and there is a room with a door that seems to always stay
closed, please do not open that door.
Trust me.
I don’t
know why it is insinuated that it is a bad thing for parents to talk so much
about their kids when they are together. Perhaps that is true to a point, but
it is also a great way to fill the silence. After 15 years of being together,
that can be useful. There is also a wealth of subjects that you can cover –
their education, the funny things they have done that day, who you want them to
marry; the list goes on and on.
8.
More options for entertainment
What should
I do tonight? Should I watch a movie, read a book, listen to music, or let the
kids put on a performance of their favourite songs and dances of the moment for
me? They could hide behind the living room curtain and introduce one another. So that is my list of the surprising benefits I have discovered since I became a parent. As great as all these benefits are, nothing beats getting to know my little girls and boy, and seeing the amazing people they are becoming.
There are certainly more benefits I could add, and I am sure that there will be many more to come. Each one helps to get through the tough and tiring days. I’m sure there are many more of those to come too!
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