A young kid aged about one to three is several handfuls. That child will keep a mother or carer on their toes like nothing else, while also amusing and entertaining and exasperating them. Endlessly curious and energetic, a toddler will get into trouble in ways we would never expect. If you have a toddler at home, you will identify with these toddler memes:
I remember thinking ‘oh where does she hider her wings’ when I saw my baby sleep like a little angel, quite overcome by motherly love. And then thinking ‘where does she hide her pitchfork and horns’ when she was awake and driving me fully crazy.
Tantrums? Yes, they are far more adept at throwing a full blown tantrum demanding something from a toy shop or the supermarket when they see something wildly expensive, completely useless or impractical. Logic, not so much.
That little tyke is exhausted – so of course he will fall quietly asleep fully resist sleep while crying his eyes out. You can put a toddler to bed – but getting them to sleep? Ah! That is a whole other story.
There is a stage when simply everything will go into the mouth – nothing is too awful or disgusting. It may later be spat out, but it will go in. I was like that image once, when I spotted my younger one putting a millipede into her mouth --- happily she didn’t like the taste and spat it out.
You would think the toddler couldn’t reach that high shelf but she will surprise you with her ingenuity. You didn’t think she could drag that stool, put in in place and then access the shelf where all those breakable objects were placed – supposedly out of reach.
They can be very destructive, get themselves into trouble in ways you could never imagine, get dirtier than you could ever think. And they get back to their adorable selves in short order as well.
There seems to be chaos and mess everywhere no matter how much to try and restore order. Cleaning up is a thankless task – also it seems pointless because there is a small tornado living in the house.
I used to follow that golden rule – sleep when the child sleeps and also get everything done then. But when the child decides that she doesn’t need three naps a day – the naps one was counting on to do things like bathe and eat and cook and clean – one needs to restructure the whole day. Yet again.
When you get one thing done there is always some new chore that the little one has helpfully manufactured for you to do. There is so much you need to do in a day before you finally get to sleep – only to do it all again the next day.
Parenting a toddler be like… this. Whatever they told you about parenting was probably inadequate. Parenting a toddler is no walk in the park – unless you're talking Jurassic Park.
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