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It gets better! My youngest is now 3 and I'm slowly getting more time for myself (and to be with my wife). She goes potty on her own, she can play on her own f
by GMoromisato 4y ago
It gets better!
My youngest is now 3 and I'm slowly getting more time for myself (and to be with my wife). She goes potty on her own, she can play on her own for 15 minutes and not demand anything, and we don't worry about her climbing the shelfs or playing with knives.
It's still hard, of course, but so much better than 1 year ago.
I don't have any advice that you haven't heard a million times already, but:
1. Carve out time for yourself. Work with your partner so each of you gets 1 hour of uninterrupted time to yourselves per day.
2. Sleep when you can. If you try to be productive while tired, you will fail. Better to spend the time sleeping.
3. Be present with your partner. You're going through this together so you should go through it together. Share stories and feelings. And make sure to give an appropriate amount of hugs, kisses, and encouragement (especially if you're not feeling it).
4. Hang in there and enjoy the ride as much as you can.
5. And again, remember that it gets better!
[p.s.: Obviously this is 10x harder if you're a single-parent. I don't have that experience, so I can't offer anything except admiration and encouragement.]
- pmarreck 4y agoFortunately not a single parent. Fortunately JUST got him into an excellent daycare for the weekdays at least (we had a nanny who was far more expensive and caused us quite a bit of stress). Thanks for the tips, I actually haven't gotten many because my parents either passed or moved away, her parents are far away, and until I had a kid I was surrounded mainly by childless couples. Also, I don't know if every parent just completely forgets what the first 3 years are like (maybe the lack of sleep prevents long-term memory formation? lol) but every parent I've run into whose kids are now older than 5 seem to have completely forgotten everything about the first 3 years - for example, one of them offered my kid a whole Dorito a few months ago (choking hazard, not many teeth in yet, etc.!) and I was like WHOA WAIT A MINUTE, DON'T YOU REMEMBER?!
- dsego 4y agoI think we forget.