We all know the typical things you miss when you become a parent — sleep usually tops the list, spending time with friends, as well as time to do things you enjoyed before baby came along. Parents I know have said they miss being able to leave the house easily by themselves and others miss using the restroom without little voices calling to them; without fingers reaching underneath the door, or to be honest, without having your toddler sitting on your lap while you’re in there doing your thing.
I’ve found there are a few things I didn’t quite expect to miss so much and it surprised me. There were five things that specifically topped my list:
1. Wearing clean clothes. I initially thought after the spit up phase that clean clothes were on the horizon again. Nope. Whether my toddler is wiping his hands messy on me, squirting me with one of those supposedly no spill straw cups, or spilling something — I’m still always messy. Especially since now we’re back in the spit up phase again with my second child. Maybe when my kids are in college I’ll have a clean shirt on again.
2. Reading the real words to a book. Keeping the attention span of a small child takes hard work and quick thinking. That often means pointing out the items on the book’s pages or very quickly reading through the words before those little hands are turning the pages to see what comes next. It will be great when we can actually REALLY read a book.
3. Silence. Between a newborn babe and a rambunctious toddler, we don’t get a lot of quiet time around here. At the end of the day when my toddler is in bed and I’m just getting my newborn down to sleep, those first few moments of quiet are so. darn. wonderful. I actually went to a doctor’s appointment by myself the other day and wished it would take the staff longer to come in and see me — just so I could have a few extra minutes of silence by myself in the exam room!
4. Doing something — anything — without an interruption. Because no matter how quick you are, it is inevitable. The moment you get into eating, showering, paying a bill, answering an email, taking a phone call, or anything else boom! — someone is going to need something. And they aren’t just going to need something, they’re going to need something very loud and very urgently. I took a two minute shower yesterday and by the time I got out, my newborn was crying and my toddler had dumped my husband’s cologne all over himself and the bathroom.
5. Wearing shoes with heels. I know this one seems silly, but I just can’t bring myself to wear shoes with heels any more and I miss it. Between chasing our toddler and being afraid I’d hurt him by stepping on him as he is constantly underfoot, I’ve been demoted to flats for the time being. While there are plenty of great flats, I miss my wedges and heels. Maybe I’ll get back to real shoes out when my kids are in college as well. That is — if I haven’t already locked myself in a quiet room to read an uninterrupted book when they leave!
What are some things you miss now that you’re a parent?
