17/10/2025
Have you been told to “enjoy every minute!” It’s often well-meaning advice but can leave new parents feeling bewildered and disappointed when they simply don’t.
Becoming a parent, like life generally, is full of ups and downs. Of steep learning curves. Good days and bad days. Soul-stretching love and utter frustration.
Those early months are certainly full of enjoyable moments. Holding your baby for the first time. Searching their squashed newborn features for family resemblance. Taking a deep breath and inhaling the sweet, new baby scent. Passing your bundle around to love-struck relatives and clucking friends. There are smiles that erase entire bad days. Warm, time-stopping cuddles. And the joy of free-falling in love again.
But there are moments of sheer exhaustion, too. Fatigue that morphs you into a grumpier, tearier version of yourself you had no idea you were harboring. When you physically don’t think you can go on any longer without getting some sleep. When you find yourself arguing with your partner over things you’d never usually be bothered by, simply because you’re both so tired you can’t think.
When your writhing, pink-faced, overtired baby won’t settle, no matter what you do and you feel helpless and incompetent. And when you find yourself, just briefly, aching for aspects of your old life. And of who you used to be. There are moments, you simply need to get through. Enjoying them, doesn’t even come into it.
And yet, not enjoying every moment, doesn’t take away from the fact that being a parent is a privilege. And that while it can be tough and challenging at times, the rewards keep coming in first words and giggles and wobbly first steps.
If you’re finding it hard it’s because it *is* hard. You’re not alone ❤️
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