People Break Down The Absolute Worst Parts About Being A Parent

The Constant Worry

"The worry that something horrible will happen to them. Sickness, kidnapping, getting lost, etc."

- MelbaToast604

"Which never, ever goes away. Ever."

- marvelous_much

"Honestly, that's all I ever think about. I have four kids (8, 7, 5, and 1.5), and all I want is for them to become good people."

"I let my fianceé know all the time, our kids will be adults longer than they are children, so we gotta make sure we establish manners, morals, and empathy. We also gotta make sure they have fun."

"I love those little monsters, even tho they're a headache sometimes."

- bafeom

Overrun with Illness

"Being sick as an adult f**king sucks. Being sick and having a sick kid, takes it to a whole new level of suck."

- axron12

"Kids have an incredible ability to get really sick during the most inconvenient times."

- jgiffin

"Four years ago before Christmas, my wife got sick and it turned into pneumonia. She was in the hospital for three days."

"Very scary. I guess. I wouldn't know, I had the flu combined with a stomach bug and both of our boys had strep throat. They were 13 and 8 at the time. They took their meds well as I had alarms set. But I was down and out."

"Day two, I went to a clinic that said stomach bug. On day three, my father (I'm 35 at the time) came and took me to the ER and my sister took my kids."

"It was a nightmare. I couldn't visit my wife in the hospital. My kids called my dad cause I was laid out on the floor. Just a f**king nigtmare. Being sick when your kids are sick makes you feel like the most useless parent in the world."

- normaldeadpool

Inconvenient Injuries

"Kids getting injured at the most inconvenient times. My wife and I had the flu this winter and my three-year-old decided she was going to help us feel better at 3:30 AM by making us tea."

"She got out of bed, went to the kitchen, and dropped a glass teapot on the floor, lacerating her feet."

"So I got to have the flu at the hospital while my daughter got stitches."

- pavorus

Staying Safe

"Always having to be extra careful so that you don't cause them to experience the consequences of losing a parent too soon."

"Sometimes I just want to be dumb and impulsive, and having to always be responsible puts a damper on that some days."

- AJSawASquirrel

"I stopped all of my hobbies because of worrying about my kids well being. I used to ride motorcycles and dirt bikes. I used to play in an adult hockey league. I used to love going to see a concert or sporting event and having a few and taking public transport back."

"Not anymore. And not again until they are fully… like 100% capable of living without my support. I’m 42 and my four sons range from 10 to 19. It’s gonna be another 20 years before I get on a bike again."

"I love them, but it sucks."

- Jcholley81

School Safety

"The worry of picking a preschool that has 'enough' security and safety measures in place has wrecked me."

"We toured the school my toddler will go to this fall and the first thing I asked about is security: locked doors, escorting the kids individually into/out of the building, etc."

"It makes me sick to the stomach that I have to worry about that."

- vk2786

Constant Meal Planning

"Figuring out three meals, 8,000 snacks, 1,000 activities, and settling for the fact they won’t like, want, or do any of them."

- BurThe___Down

"The meals and snacks exhaust me. Constantly having to bring snacks everywhere when they are toddlers, and now that they are almost teenagers they are hungry all of the time. It never stops. I'm always at the grocery or planning meals or cooking meals. It's insanity!"

- Feetyoumeet

"I love to cook, but trying to keep a family fed is exhausting. Once I became a mom, I really started to understand why some people hate cooking."

- KatieCashew

Minimal Me-Time

"No or little free time."

- MissingCalifornia-

"I'm an introvert, I really need my me time to recharge."

"And I have a five-month-old baby that needs me at every moment of the day. I can sometimes get away with leaving him alone during the last hour of his afternoon nap (with the baby monitor on, as he's started rolling and it frightens me), but that's it."

"He needs his mama at all times and throws a fit for anyone else. He won't even really eat or sleep when his grandma takes care of him. I foresee his first month of nursery school being very unpleasant."

- ClancyHabbard

"I find myself staying up a lot later than I used to just because of the fact that I've always enjoyed solitude, and these days, I have very little. So once everyone falls asleep I often lose track of time as, 'Just a few minutes,' to myself turns into two hours before I know it."

- Pristine_Interview86

​A Child's Persistence 

"Relentlessness. Kids don’t stop, they don’t go away, they always need to be fed, and cleaned, and entertained. They are always there, for 21 years+, they are always there. Every single day, every single hour. Kids are always there."

- Rkozlow

"'Raising children is like getting pecked to death by ducks.' I don't know who first said it, but they knew parenting."

"When the kids were young, my wife and I used to quietly say, 'quackquackquack,' to each other when the relentlessness got a little too stressful."

- PaulsRedditUsername

"I call my child 'The Terminator.'"

- Greatbrandino11

"'That kid is out there. It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. it doesn't feel pity or remorse or fear, and it absolutely will not stop… EVER, until you are dead!' - Kyle as a parent, probably."

- PaulClarkLoadletter

What Is Sleep, Again?

"Lack of sleep impacts your ability to do everything else so that’s going as number one."

" Number two, for me, is that sometimes, when they’re having a full-on breakdown because they don’t want to get in the bath they have literally every day on the one day you actually have to be somewhere, I look at them and really miss only taking care of me."

"I still love them, do not regret them, and would never ever tell them, but they make things so much harder than it needs to be because they do not give a crap about any priorities other than their own."

"When that happens I do some deep breathing and remind myself that they’re just little kids, of course, they don’t care about making other people wait."

- LastLadyResting

"The sleep deprivation."

"I'm serious, it wrecked me. I was already suffering from postpartum depression, and I was both breastfeeding and dealing with an unhelpful partner. I didn't sleep much until the baby was about a year old."

"Cognitively and emotionally, it destroyed me. I made stupid mistakes at work and as a parent. I didn't trust or like myself, or the baby."

"That's the number one reason he's an only child. I can't handle the lack of sleep."

"He's an amazing, creative, hilarious 15-year-old now; I love him and I love being the mom of a teenager. For one thing, he sleeps through the night."

- insertcaffeine

An Intro to Death and Grief

"Right now, for me... explaining the concept of death to my three-and-a-half-year-old."

"My MIL (Mother-in-Law) is having their senior dog put down this week, and we have to explain, gently, that kiddo is going to go to Grandma's this week and the dog who has been there her whole life will be gone, and Grandma is going to be sad."

"Also the constant worry and anxiety. That s**t eats you alive."

"(But then you look at them and snuggle them and realize you BUILT A PERSON and my god is amazing. It's a love you will never be able to explain.)"

- vk2786

Excess Funds

"Not me, but my best friend told me the thing he hates the most about being a parent is just not having any money for him to spend on his wife."

"Before they had kids, he would surprise her with little gifts every now and again and it would make her so happy. Now he's starting to feel bad now that he can't do that anymore."

- Author_Story_Teller

Disciplining Them

"The guilt when you have to stand up to your kids and discipline them. It's never fun to see them sad."

- AlwaysNipping

The Imperfections

"The worst part of being a parent is realizing that you're never going to be perfect for them. You're only human yourself. You're weak, you're tired, you're fallible, just like them."

"And as such, you'll do/not-do something and you'll blow it out of proportion and crucify yourself, and you forget that you're just still human too."

"And in that moment, in that lapse in judgment, you'll regret yelling at them, you'll wish you played with them a little bit better, you'll regret getting frustrated and impatient, and you'll regret criticizing them. You'll miss them, wherever they are, whoever old they are."

"The worst part of being a parent is that you can't save them from yourself. It's all in the game of life, and every second of it takes effort and thoughtful energy."

"Some days will be better than others. This too, shall pass."

- Rpark888

Trying to Relate to Them

"As a father, when they were too young and I couldn't connect with them."

"When they are sick, need to undergo an operation... even a blood sample or a vaccine, it really breaks my heart to watch that."

"When you think you are doing that parenting thing right, but somehow your kid does the opposite as you expected."

"When your partner and yourself are not on the same page in terms of parenting and it creates conflicts in the couple."

- borsky

All of the Above

"It depends on what you are already lacking in life."

"Don't have a lot of money? Wait until daycare bills add up."

"Don't have a lot of free time or get much sleep? Welcome to being a zombie for a few years."

"Don't have much patience? You will be tested with every fiber of your being to shake your baby when it won't stop crying. You absolutely CANNOT do this by the way. It's better to put it down in a safe spot for a few minutes till you can do a few deep breaths and calm down and come back a bit more level-headed."

"Have a difficult time agreeing with your spouse on plans or values? Get ready for divorce or for eternal resentment."

"Not much of a sex life? Welcome to celibacy."

"My daughter is the light of my life and I have so much joy with her now that she sleeps through the night and has a personality, but being a dad is hard and I occasionally find myself in a panic attack because I'm nervous for what the h**l I'm gonna do in August when the new one is born. We are privileged in many ways but it's still so hard!"

- GMaharris

Parenting can be a beautiful, life-changing experience, but that does not mean that it's perfect, and it's absolutely not for everyone.

Conversations like this are important for people to have before they decide to have kids, so they can make the best decision for themselves and avoid those situations where uninformed people have kids, only to resent their children for the rest of their time together, which likely would lead to going no-contact.