I am a mother of 2 beautiful and generally well mannered boys, who give me a reason to live and who I would do anything for.  However, kids will always be kids! They misbehave, embarrass you in the supermarket, wake up at night, answer or attempt to answer back, challenge you with food choices or the lack of choice and generally ensure that you are always on your toes. Being a parent is a tough gig! But we cannot blame our children for the challenges they present us with as we made the choice of having them in the first place and they did not have any say in it!

Adults decide to bring children into this world often without realising the enormous responsibility that it brings with it.  Overnight you become 100%  responsible for another human being, who will rely on you, your strenth, your advice and your guidance their whole life.   This is not to say that your child will always listen to anything you have to say.  Quiet the opposite, children test the boundaries and how much they can get away with from a very young age.  This includes sleeping, eating, playing, crying and otherwise interracting with the rest of the universe around them. And unfortunately new born babies do not come with an instruction manual of troubleshooting questions and answers unlike everything else surrounding us.

Most parents continuously complain to anyone who would listen about lack of sleep, lack of personal time and generally how hard life is after kids come along.  Well, all parents are in the same boat and life is as hard and complicated as you let it be.  Remember that all problems have a solution. However, sometimes particular solutions do not fit our lifestyle, personality or beliefs.  For example, sleep is like any other skill babies have to learn. If we do not teach them this skill from a very young age, we cannot later complain that our children are bad sleepers.  I am not talking about harsh concepts like controlled crying which makes most parents cringe, but exercising some self control whilst still providing the nurturing sleep environment and not being lazy due to being too tired after work or a long day.

I often hear people say that life is finished once you have children.  I truly feel sorry for them as for me life just began when my first born entered this world. As testing as they are, children provide joy like no one else can and unconditional love.  If you teach your kids the concept of mutual respect, leading by example, any issues and potential problems will just become stepping stones in developing kind and generous adults. Therefore, I compose myself during those trying moments, remind myself  to enjoy each moment so that I do not look back at their childhood with regrets, wishing I could have changed something.  You often remember moments from the past and wish you could relive them. I want to look at my kids childhood and know that we all enjoyed every moment of it. As for lack of sleep – sleep is overrated anyway!