25 Moms Get Real About What Changed After Kids
Remember sleeping in on the weekends? Those days are over.
Forget the flour sack assignment in school — nothing can adequately prepare you for parenthood.
Mothers especially note this great change: where once they were concerned only with themselves, possibly a significant other, now there is a living, breathing being in their arms, completely dependent on their mother to take care of them. It’s both a beautiful and frightening reality, but everyone knows moms are superheroes, so of course they can handle the responsibility and challenges that come with raising a child.
That being said, it’s no secret that children drastically alter your life, sometimes in good ways and sometimes…less than.
We’ve listed out 25 things moms said changed after they had kids, the first and foremost being, naturally, sleep. When you have an infant, the recommended seven to eight hours of rest each night goes right out the window. Instead, you find yourself constantly waking up during the night to take care of your baby. In fact, according to the National Sleep Foundation, 76% of new parents experience frequent sleep issues. One mother said she couldn’t sleep due to nervous energy about her child’s needs during the night, while another talked about feeling like a zombie “with no end in sight for the midnight, 2 a.m., 4 a.m. and 6 a.m. wake-up calls” (Solomon, 2016). Possibly one of the hardest adjustments to make for new parents is the chronic sleep deprivation, and there’s no reprieve on the weekends, either; rearing a child is a full-time job, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
