4 Laughable Misconceptions I had about Motherhood

Before I had kids, I was so naïve. When I think back to becoming pregnant, I see a very optimistic, energetic 30 year old. I had rose-colored glasses on. I truly didn’t comprehend how hard parenting would be. Of course I knew that the newborn stage would be challenging; babies cry and don’t sleep a lot. However, beyond that, I lacked insight into what raising children would be like, beyond the baby stage. It’s been a humbling experience, to say the least. I love my girls more than anything in this world, but I can’t help but LAUGH at the misconceptions I had about motherhood.

Once they sleep through the night, they’ll sleep through the night forever

I embarrassingly thought that once my baby learned to sleep through the night, I’d be done with sleeping troubles. I had pretty much convinced myself that after the first year, all the sleep issues would be gone and I’d be back to the wonderful night sleep I was accustomed to. Well, I couldn’t have been more wrong. Now, 7 years later, I have a 1^st grader with a sleeping reward chart. This same child spent 3 years sleeping on an inflatable toddler bed on my bedroom floor. I have a 4 year old who gets out of bed at bedtime every single night. HA!

If I do baby led weaning, my child won’t be a picky eater

Welp – I was wrong again. I did baby led weaning, paid for online infant feeding courses, followed all the feeding experts, listened to an endless number of podcasts on picky eating AND I work as a Dietitian…AND I have a child who literally will cry if you put a blueberry on her plate. Both of my kids have long lists of foods they won’t eat, and they both dislike different things, which has made mealtime very challenging. I envisioned a life of happily making dinner and all of us sitting down and eating what is served. Unfortunately, that is not my reality which has taken a long time to get used to. Feeding my family unexpectedly feels like a never-ending chore.

If I exclusively breastfeed, I will lose all the baby weight

Once again, my younger self was confident and hopeful, but it didn’t work out as planned. I did in fact breastfeed both my kiddos, but after my second child, I retained quite a bit of weight that really caught me off guard. Despite healthy eating, exercising multiple times per week, staying hydrated, getting more sleep, seeing a hormonal specialist – the weight won’t budge. And it’s OKAY, but it’s not what I expected and has been a hard pill to swallow after being accustomed to my pre-kid body.

Tantrums are for two year olds

When you’re young and aren’t around many little kids, all you may hear is “The Terrible Twos”. Everyone loves to warn new parents about THE TERRIBLE TWOS! However, once I became a mom, I learned that the twos actually weren’t the worst of it…have you ever met a threenager?! Age 3 was tough with tantrums. Age 4 was better….and ages 5, 6, 7 – they still come with the occasional epic meltdowns. Never did I expect some of the emotions that have come out of my ‘older’ (aka: non-toddler) kids. Still to this day, an emotional meltdown can rock my household and shake me to my core…and this is certainly not something I ever projected when I first became a mom.

Despite my very inaccurate predictions of how motherhood would go, there’s one thing I know for sure and it’s just as I expected: loving these girls to the moon and back. All the hard times, the tears, the rock bottom moments, it’s all worth it for the hugs and kisses, the snuggles, the “I love yous”, the giggles, the fun times…the never ending LOVE.

What laughable misconceptions about motherhood did you have?!