What it means to be a parent.

It 's 5 am, I am woken to the distressing cries of my nearly two year old daughter, Aurora. Aurora is Latin for Dawn.. yes you got it, I do love myself that much and Dawn Junior just didn't suit her. Obviously she has had a scary dream and needed some comfort, but the reaction in me is like a switch, almost like I need to rescue her riding in on a white horse, violently kicking away all the monsters and scary shadows on the journey to her room before I scoop her up into my arms like a newborn. That's the reality of how I feel, but the reality of the situation  is I have woken her Daddy up to go up and get her as I am five weeks away from giving birth to my second Dawn-Spawn and I cannot for the life of me lift her in and out of her cotbed without feeling like I am a human sized toothpaste tube and if I lean too much the new babs is gonna be squeezed outta me like a pearldrop! Glamorous, oh yes!

He delivers her to my arms, I guess it is okay to let him be the initial Hero. He is our Hero after all and she is a Daddy's Girl. I cradle her into me like she can't live without me and my mommy powers are the only thing that will soothe her.
She tells me she was frightened and was crying and calling daddy really loud. She asks to sleep with us. This is a rare occasion cause she is very independent and enjoys her space...bed space that is. She gets that from me. We snuggle down for a cozy sleep. I know I will not sleep with this lack of space and fear of waking her up with every move I make, but this is one of the sacrifices you make. A sacrifice you don't mind making and there is a comfort to having her so close..so is it a sacrifice or is it an automatic instinct adjustment, a natural reaction?

I lie there awake thinking of how I was before her, my life before her, before her daddy. How I felt about kids, babies, my friends babies and families. I always loved kids, they always loved me. I loved entertaining them and playing with them but never entertained the idea of having any myself until much later on. In fact pregnancy scared me, having a child meant life ruined. 

I remember I was 19 years old, a happy working professional, assistant manager of a retail shop, something I was really proud of and worked very hard to get to. This one day on my lunch break I went across to the shop, I bumped into an old friend from school who had dropped out in 5th year and I hadn't seen him since. There he was strolling towards me with a buggy and a girlfriend. I was filled with this fear and sympathy for this poor young man who's life was 'ruined' by this tiny, fatty, pumpkin of a baby boy. He pulled back the hood of the buggy and with excitement he was proclaiming 'look Dawn, look at my son', such a proud father. So happy, grinning from ear to ear, nearly crying from happiness, like something had been awoken inside him.

Of course I had the emotional capacity of a cat so I was still on the thought process of-'oh dear, his life is over, no fun, no social life, goodbye career, hello shitty nappies and constant cries'. Instead of understanding his joy and happiness I continued to feel sorry for him. Why? I don't know. I guess I was young and when you aren't in that position you cannot comprehend or understand as to what it is like. Why was my life somewhat better than his? I feel guilty for feeling that way then, but it is only until I had my own I understood. Even through my pregnancy I was still having days of mourning for my freedom, and even though it is to be expected when having an unplanned pregnancy, even if it was planned you will still have these moments, days of missing and reminiscing.

I gaze at my hilarious awesome offspring who has just dropped to the floor declaring she is a turtle ladybird and starts crawling around the room like a lunatic. Kinda like a drunken version of myself. A day never goes by that I am not amazed by her and also not a day goes by that I wanna drive her head through the wall. The 'terrible twos' have arrived and we continue to battle for control. She is a bossy little thing, a mini me. We clash at times and my empty threats of-'Do you want to go to your room?', 'If you don't behave you are going to bed', fall on not-so-deaf ears as she replies happily with yes to every threat that I received as a child. Maybe it is because she knows I am bluffing and battling for control and obedience or maybe it is cause I made her room so awesome with tents made of pink blankets and teddies and books so she would enjoy being there more than the mother child battling ground. With creativeness comes a fiery fierce temper, it is all part of who she is. At least when she disagrees she is always polite roaring 'NO THANK YOU' when I say I must change her nappy'. So it is a humorous temper. We both have strong personalities and are so alike it weirds me out at times. But she has and continues to make me a better person. She has taught me patience, something I always needed. Well I only have patience for her...not for anything or anyone else but it is a start.

I once read having kids is like having your heart walking around outside your body and  it is the truest of all the statements along with the wankery thing all parents say 'Until you have your own you do not even qualify to comment or understand'. Annoying but true. Even if you have a million childcare degrees or babysit your nieces and nephews every other weekend, until you have your own you really have no idea. 

I really didn't want to go off point or diddledaddle in getting carried away. This is my first Blog, I imagined it short and sweet with some charm here and there. I guess I will have to work on that as I am getting carried away. So، what it means to me to be a parent is- all of it, everything, the good the bad and the ugly (ugly meaning all the gross body changes and quickened aging). To the  parents-to-be I would like to say, you wont know what hit you but it all works out, it is a life changing and huge adjustment but have faith in yourself and your instincts. Ignore all the other parents who think they know it all, including your own. You will be in their position soon. Only you will know your child, and it is trial and error after all, like everything in life, it is a learning process. So don't be so hard on yourself. 

Enjoy every moment, even if they do shit all over you, it gets worse when their diet is varied ..if ya catch my drift. To the people who don't want children-us parents will always say, you don't know what you are missing, and we are right. But also I think in another life I had no kids and travelled the world having adventures and risking my life doing extreme sports and stuff I love my freedom, it is the one thing I miss the most. I can see why you dont want any, enjoy the life you have, dont be these people who 'do it for the sake of having one and to carry on the gene pool or save a frizzled relationship', it is a very shallow and selfish statement and reason to bring new life into the world. Don't be the parents who blame their kids for them having no money, or cant risk taking another job or being unemployed or couldnt take other exciting oppourtunites because they arrived. You can have a life and have kids, you have to make sacrifices but they are worth it, love outweighs all. You can still do all the things you want to do you just have to tailor it around your kids, which can be done and has been done since the Dawn of Dawn of Dawn. It is a choice, and it is hard work. Either way it is all part of your adventure.

These days parents are obsessed with parenting, what there kids eat, creative play, education their kids are their lives. Now I already psychoanalyze everything I do on a daily basis anyway and it is so tiring without spending my evenings waiting for my boyfriend to come home from work so I can cry in his arms because I didn't play enough with her that day so now she is emotionally traumatized, she won't love me anymore, she wont socialize well with others because I was too busy to paint with her and I gave her two biscuits and a packet of crisps as a treat and I shouldn't have because she had a treat yesterday and she shouldn't have another one until at least another month when her liver has cleared out all those bad processed sugars. Yes these are things I worry about. But I am getting better. she is my treat, she deserves to have treats cause she is only young once and soon she will be in my position worrying about her own health, weight, childs health and weight. This is how short life is.

Moderation is good. Life is better, live it and stop making life tedious for your kids. People judge me when I treat myself to  mocha when I am out and about in town once or twice a week, I am pregnant I shouldn't be drinking caffeine... well ya you are ugly so you shouldn't be out in public burning my eyes with your mutant face. But hey that's why we have opinions, they are neither right nor wrong just an opinion. Do you ever meet these people in life who wont eat certain processed foods cause they are so unhealthy yet they slam themselves with cocktails of beer and drugs on the weekend.... ya everyone's a hypocrite. Get the F**k over it and mind your business. *Slurps double espresso and shoves pastry down gob. And by the way it is called an ESPRESSO not and EXPRESSO.

Anyway I have gone off point. I guess next time I should plan and write out what I am trying to get across to you guys rather than verbally vandalizing this blog space.
Thanks for taking the time to read this and I promise the next one will be with more punch and to the point.

Happy parenting!