STARTING SCHOOL IS HARD FOR PARENTS BY: REBECCA BOWYER
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ou know that moment when your shiny new parenting gig turns to crap around 6 weeks after you bring baby home? The ‘Why didn’t anyone tell me this?’ moment, where you’re sure nobody ever mentioned how soul-sucking constant sleep deprivation is, how painful breastfeeding can be and how you may not actually love that little bundle of joy every second of every day.
Your eldest child starting school is a little like this. Despite being told otherwise by friends, family and the media, I was convinced it would be a total breeze. I thought when Mr 5 started school this year it would free up heaps of time and we would enter some sort of fantasy postpreschool-parenting world where I could sip wine and eat biscuits and cheese on a Friday afternoon while the kids played happily with their friends on our well-manicured lawn.
Except they did tell you - several times. You just didn’t have the point of reference to be able to really understand what they were talking about, so you dismissed it. Waking up every two hours for nine months or more? Pfft, they must be exaggerating. Nobody could possibly live through that and tell the tale.
Clearly I had confused my own life with an episode of Better Homes and Gardens. The reality has been a little different.
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Peninsula Kids – Autumn 2017