It’s a New Experience Every Time

Parenting has taught me quite a lot. Honestly, I’ve learnt much more than I ever would have learned if I would have followed the plan I had for my life. You know, go to campus, get a good job and focus all my energies on my job and career growth. I’d already started with a job at a great organization at 18 but that’s a story for another day. That is not to say that it wasn’t a great plan. Maybe it just wasn’t time yet.

You may think that once you have your first child you will learn all you need to have learnt to last you through all the other children you might have afterwards. It’s only logical that raising one child will give you great experience considering it is a very intensive training, right? Unfortunately, nature has other plans.

Even from infancy every child is different. I’m not referring to the obvious physical differences but to personality and how they respond to situations. Some children are extroverts while others prefer to brood on their own.  Others love food while others wonder why they have to eat all the time. Others find diapers a nuisance while others love the comfort that comes with them.

I only have one child right now but every time I think of getting another one it scares me! I keep imagining the first few months of sleepless nights, the frustration of not knowing what the baby wants yet they are actively communicating and all the diaper changes. That last one doesn’t bother me as such. At least not any more anyway. It sort of grows on you!

Whenever I have to babysit for my sister I become this other person. I worry and fuss over her baby (barely over a year) and we bond quite well. Sometimes he follows me instead of his mum (but that’s probably because we look alike). I think I do an okay job of babysitting but there is a difference between babysitting and having your own. With babysitting I can ‘return to sender’ if it gets too much. I am the sender if the baby is mine so I have nobody to return it to! (Does God count when the baby is screaming their lungs out?)

That’s about the scariest thought in my head: doing it all over again, alone. Thankfully, that’s not something I have to worry about right now because I’m single and not really mingling in those circles so there’s no baby headed this way any time soon.

I do however hope and pray for grace, patience and strength when the time comes. I’m also praying for a reliable and understanding husband who will help me raise all the children (I don't know what the future holds) into good, God-fearing and responsible people. Yes, I do hope to get married even with most of the population wondering what marriage is for.