Frustrated

You know, I expected quite a bit of ass-vice when I was pregnant with my first child.  The whole "you're never going to sleep again", "you wont be able to do that when you're a Mum" and "you'll never get changed out of your pjamas and you'll have to live on take away forever" etc etc.  I may be exaggerating a little, but you get the idea.  But I never expected to have the same problem the second time around!

I'm now getting "Ooh, you won't be able to do THAT anymore when the second one comes along" or my favourite..."You'll HAVE to put Jake in day care when the second one is here".  I mean, seriously??  I may have no idea what this second baby will be like, but I do have an idea of what parenting involves by now and what my strengths/weaknesses are.  And it's not like I had a dream newborn the first time around - he was a screaming, refluxy, non-sleeping baby who hated both cars and prams.  So no 'idealised' images here!

I'm so sick of people telling me how easy I have it with one child and how I'll REALLY know what parenting is when I have more than one.  Particularly coming from people who's children sleep in past 6am and get days off during the week while their child/ren are in day care and they are still not working, while I don't get any days off and still manage to contribute a substantial amount to our home business...without putting my child in front of an electronic babysitter all day!  And when it hasn't been my choice to have only one child until now, it cuts particularly deep.  You know what...if you can't handle your children, then you shouldn't have chosen to have them.  And you should feel extremely lucky that you have that choice in the first place!

Ok, so I may be getting a little off track now, but as you can tell I have been quite frustrated!  I shouldn't have to have more than one child to be recognised as a 'credible' mother!