5 reasons parenting sucks the life out of you. Hang in there.

Raising kids is exhausting. It’s has no official clock in time, and defineltly no official clock out time. It’s 24/7, 7 days a week, for life. Yeah, I know kids become adults at 18, and our days of raising them should at that point be over. But ask your parents if that actually happens…..

Actually, you don’t even have to ask, I’ll just tell you. It doesn’t. It’s never over. Ever. Our children are here for all of our living, breathing days, sucking the air right out of us. Sounds a bit scary if you’re reading this and don’t yet have children, doesn’t it?

Well it’s not that scary. It’s exhausting because our children literally suck the life out of us, but if we can do it, you can do it too.

I have made a little list of 5 ways your children will suck the life out of you. I made this list so that you know you are not alone. Do I have solutions? No. I’m a mom blogger, not a therapist.

1. Children are disgusting. Sounds harsh right? No. It’s so true. They are messy, they are dirty, and they don’t care.

-Personal Hygeine. They don’t like to bathe, brush their teeth, change their underwear, or change their clothes. Like ever.

-Personal Space. They don’t give two shits if there is food molding under their bed. They don’t give two shits if their bedroom smells like a dump. They don’t give two shits if you have to shovel yourself through their crap just to tuck them in.

-Personal Germ Suppliers. They literally touch or lick everything they see. Especially little kids. They wipe their snot on everything but a Kleenex. This isn’t just a little kid thing either. Older kids share everything. “I got a new lipgloss, let’s all take turns using it,” they’ll say to every single other girl on the bus. Yay! So glad we are having 10 different strains of the flu coming home in one small little gloss tube. Thank you for including the entire family in this wonderful gift of disease.

2. Children cost a small fortune. They are always outgrowing things. They are always ruining things. And they always WANT things. This never ends. Our children will look to us for money until they day we kick the bucket.

3. Children think they know everything. They will come to us with every problem they face in life. We will always be the first people that they turn to for advice. When we give them that advice, we are always going to be wrong. This is probably the most draining part about being a parent, but keep it up. Even if they are not listening to anything we tell them, it’s still being logged somewhere in those little heads of theirs for future use. “I can still here my mom/dads voice in my head saying…..” Exactly. It’s filed away up there somewhere and will eventually turn up again. We are NOT wasting our breath.

4. Children will hurt our feelings each and everyday for all eternity. They may or may not be doing this on purpose, but it still can cause us the same amount of pain. In my case it’s comparing our lives to others, “Sally and her family get to go on a Disney cruise for spring break. They’re so lucky.” They absoluelty were not at all trying to make us feel bad, but as parents we instantly feel guilty and wish that we too could afford a Disney cruise for our family over spring break, then instantly feel like a failure. This is normal. Just find something fun to do that doesn’t cost a years salary. It’s the time spent together that counts, and there will be plenty of time for Disney cruises in the future.

5. Children are always there. Sure, they go to school, and as they get older they start having more independance. But even after the ages where kids are 100% dependent of their parents, they are still everywhere you look. Their laundry, their dirty dishes, their toys, basically all of their shit is always there. Actually always everywhere. Even when you cannot  “physically” see your child, they always have ways of reminding you that they still are still there is spirit.

So there you have it. 5 things that literally suck the life out of me as a parent. None of these things have killed me yet, and I promise none of these things will kill you either. All in all, raising children is the most beautiful thing that will suck the life out of you. But sometimes it’s just nice to know that you’re not alone in the world.