Expectant Parent Congratulatory Warnings

When people congratulated me on being a first time parent, it was amazing how right after they shared my extreme glee they would also share some tidbit of ominous advice with me. Cryptic and almost cruel warnings of the woes to come. It would go something like this:

“Congratulations now you get to experience the cycle of life and one of the biggest blessings. But get ready to never sleep again.” Or my other favorite, “How awesome, I would not trade the experience of parenthood for anything, but now the endless worrying will begin.” You see what I mean, these statements seem like curses that parents feel obliged to pass on to you and it’s as though they have now put an irreversible hoax on you, that if not passed on becomes your fate. Alright, alright, admittedly I may be watching too many movies. But in all honesty I have experienced variations of both these warnings to some pain staking degree.

However I will say that even in spite of the warnings, nothing could have prepared me for the joys and lows that being a mom for all of 40 weeks has brought me. This is a milestone in my mind because the way I see it, my little one has been in the outside world for as long as she was in the womb and I am already in awe of her and the miracle that the Creator and Life Source allowed me to partake in. Now that I am on the side of parents who get to give words of encouragement to other expecting earth angels. I am going to try my best to just stay in the vein of keeping the congrats and the down-and-dirty advice separate. There is a rightful place for both, but when you mix them together,it undermines the sentiment of them separate and apart. In other words, let the parents-to-be experience the high of the congratulation alone and without any undermining energy. Then when the opportunity is right or even later in the conversation, let them know there is also the other side to the experience, the day-to-day that becomes the embodiment of “the labor of love” statement. Not all bad, but definitely not all roses.

Holler if you hear me.