8 Ways Parenting Is Not Like Real Life

In real life you get to change jobs. In parenting your job changes you. (You thought I was going to say, “you get to change diapers”, didn’t you?)
In real life you get a salary. In parenting you try to serve celery.
In real life you wonder whether anyone likes you. In parenting you know they do for 2 years, you know they don’t for two years, you know they do for two years. you know they…
In real life what you wear matters most when you are a teen. In parenting what you wear matters most to your teen.
In real life sleeping late is a weekly reward. In parenting, sleep is a weekly reward.
In real life you wish you could scream at your boss. In parenting, you actually do scream at your boss (and then beat yourself up for yelling at a child and then for for letting them be the boss)
In real life you can’t wait til you are older. In parenting, you can’t wait until they are older.
In real life, you wonder whether what you are doing matters. In parenting, you wonder whether what you are doing matters…but some days you get a hug.

Photo graciously provided by the author, through a Creative Commons license, some rights reserved

inthefastlane // Aug 20, 2008 at 5:14 am

In real life you don’t get to “quit this job” when the boss is too demanding or changes their mind every two seconds, or throws a bowl of food during a “meeting.”
jon // Aug 20, 2008 at 5:28 am

actually, I have in real life.
8 ways goes parenting « Levite Chronicles // Aug 23, 2008 at 9:32 am

[...] 8 ways goes parenting Filed under: 8 ways — Tags: 8 ways, gnmparents, parenting — Jon Swanson @ 12:24 pm I write elsewhere on occasion. This week I took my 8 ways series to GNMParents.com with 8 ways parenting is not like real life. [...]

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