JUST YOU WAIT…is something you hear a lot of when you have small children, from other people, in a really negative way, isn’t it?
Enjoying any aspect of having a baby? Just you wait till they hit the toddler twos and it’ll all go wrong!
Struggling with the bleakness of newborn sleep deprivation? Just you wait till the four month / eight month / two year sleep regression, ho ho ho.
Think it’s hard now? Just you wait till they’re a toddler / tween / teenager when it gets really tough! You don’t know how easy you have it now!
(Great).
But no-one ever says it just about the good bits that are just around the corner, do they?
No one ever says, just you wait till your children sit in restaurants colouring for hours on end and you can enjoy your meal and lunchtime wine without having to run around the tables chasing them for hours.
No-one ever says, just you wait till they learn to read and it’s the most joyful thing.
No-one ever says, just you wait till they become fully formed little people with opinions on everything and you can chat properly and they like the same things as you and give you actual opinions on your outfits and it’s brilliant.
Parenting, it never gets easy. And there are so many different unexpected challenges that crop up along the way., usually when you’re least expecting it.
But yeah, if you’re a parent of very small children and finding it tricky – it is tricky! – hang on in there…just you wait.