Parenting Lies Our Friends Tell Us About Raising Kids

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Parenting Lies or friends Tells us About Raising Kids Miami Moms Blog Contributor Adita Lang

Motherhood. There are so many definitions of this but none prepare you for what’s ahead in raising kids.

I became a mom when I was 40. I figured I had plenty of time to be the ultimate auntie to many of my friends kids and learn all of the intricacies of raising kids way before I jumped into parenting with both feet.

Between friends, family, and the latest sitcom I was confident in my mothering expertise years before it came to fruition. Except, here’s the thing: what I didn’t realize, is that all my friends twisted the truth here and there as a means of keeping their own sanity. They didn’t want to remember the sleepless nights and the spit-up on the Prada dress, so they highlighted the coos and giggles.

When I was pregnant with my first child, I pranced around like the queen of pregnancy. I had it all figured out. With tons of parenting expertise from my friends, I was ready for what was ahead. When my son was born I was enamored with every look he gave me, every coo, and every glimmer from his eyes. Everything about him made me shine and I loved him more and more each day.

What I didn’t know was with all that love came so many sleepless nights, to the point that I would cry from sheer exhaustion. My friends would mention a night here and there, but not for weeks in a row. I thought there was a girl code… why didn’t anyone share this with me? They tell you to sleep before the baby is born, but they forgot to tell me that they REALLY meant it, that sleep would become scarce, and that a full night’s sleep was a thing of the past.

Hello… can’t we have each others’ back on this parenting thing?

Hello Miami Moms Blog Contributor Adita Lang Parenting Lies Our Friends Tell Us About Raising Kids

OK, so I am a bit sleep deprived, but wait, that’s not all. Sitting down to a meal, remember that. That my friend will become a thing of the past as well. You will be lucky to get in a few snacks here and there between dirty diapers and feedings. Not yours of course… the baby’s.

Don’t get me wrong, I would not change this parenting thing for the world; but it would have been nice to hear it all upfront, from all those moms in my life that I looked up to for the ultimate knowledge in raising kids.

Reality is, it doesn’t end after babyhood. There are so many other parenting lies my girls passed on to me throughout the years. Let’s take homework, shall we? I was a fairly decent student in my time but who decided to change the way you do a simple division problem? Fact families? And of course this was never shared with me by my mom friends. They played it off like homework was a quick and easy thing. I was there for hours, convinced that Bill Gates changed the math. Where was the press conference for this?

After my second kid, I pranced around once again because this time I figured I had my own back in this situation. I felt that I had already understood the lies and found my own way through this parenting journey.

Oh, but wait, there are still a few more. You know that mom that says her child will taste any food, or that they are a good eater… lies, I tell you. For the first time in my life I became really good at hiding food in food so that my little ones couldn’t complain about the squishy, slimy, thing with their chicken. But here I must be honest, even as they got older my stealth food hiding techniques still stay sharp. I’m finding that the tweens give me more food challenges than the babies did.

So here is the thing… all of our children, parenting techniques, and family backgrounds differ in one way or another. Realistically, all we can do is pass on what has worked for us down to our BFF’s. These may or may not work for them, but please share the good, the bad, and the ugly. It makes this parenting thing so much easier. I love being a mom, and although these challenges may have given me a gray hair or two, I have loved every minute of raising my kids and making parenting work the best it can for our family.

With love and light,

Adita