Things You Appreciate More Once You Have Kids

Things You Appreciate More Once You Have Kids

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I recently read this blog post from Scary Mommy about 10 Things I Wish I’d Done Before I Had Kids.

Things like travel, appreciate sleep, get into shape, treasure my alone time blah blah blah. Not a bad list – but honestly for me, I couldn’t relate to any of it. I enjoyed my life before kids (as I do now after kids) but don’t wish I’d done anything differently. And I certainly don’t regret anything …

“Appreciating Sleep” can only be appreciated when you know what it’s like to not have it. And before kids, you have no idea. No f’ing idea. Sleep deprivation is seriously a form of torture, and there’s no way in my life I’ve ever experienced anything like it before having kids.

“Travelling before kids“, well I did some of that. But honestly it’s not as if becoming a parent means my life is over. When the kids get a little older, if we are fortunate enough then we will travel together. If not – then we look forward to doing it together as a couple once the kids are older.

“Keeping in fabulous shape” … again, everything changes after you have a baby. If you’re lucky it doesn’t, but for me it did. And I was in relatively good shape. Pregnancy, breastfeeding and just all-round eating has changed my body forever. It wouldn’t have mattered if I was in fabulous shape before hand anyway …

I could say more, but I don’t know if you really need to hear the rest HAHA … A lot of what was on the list was more of a “I wish I had a chance to do this NOW” more than anything. There’s no point in going back in time and wishing you did things differently – because unless you know what it’s like in your current state, you’d never appreciate it.

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Once you have kids, I have found that you tend to appreciate things MORE. So in the spirit of looking at the positive, here are some things you appreciate once you have kids:

1. Sleep
2. Time Alone
3. My body pre-babies (I will appreciate it post-babies, but that takes time)
4. Coffee
5. Wine
6. My husband / partner
7. A tidy house
8. Eating your own meal
9. Having an excuse to leave something early because “kids”
10. The weekend
11. Having a shower every single day
12. Doing the grocery shopping alone
13. Watching a movie in it’s entirety without interruption
14. Day time naps
15. Hot food
16. Hot drinks
17. Friends
18. Going to the toilet in peace
19. Silence
20. My parents
21. The outdoors
22. Getting in and out of the car in less than 30 seconds
23. Chocolate
24. The amount of dishes to do after dinner (or lack thereof)
25. Only doing the laundry once a week (instead of multiple times each day)
26. Sleeping in your own bed with your partner, and not a child
27. Having a mess-free car
28. Adult conversation
29. Reading a book
30. Lego-free floors

A lot of these things I didn’t appreciate before kids, but now, by golly they mean a lot to me. Simple things like enjoying a hot coffee, or sitting on the toilet without someone screaming my name; or just enjoying an adult conversation without interruption.

I appreciate these things so much more after having kids.

I love my children. I love being a Mother. I love appreciating all of these things, and wouldn’t change anything for the world..

What do you appreciate more since having kids?

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