As for the best part, I think it’s a tie between (1) being able to delight another person, constantly, whether by my actions or with gifts or whatever and (2)that unexplainable pride in their accomplishments.
.-= Adelas´s last blog ..Maybe you’d better check for that, too =-.

And then I had my own beloved children. And I finally understood.

What I hate: Being the ONLY one who is needed/wanted all the damn time. I love being needed, but then the whining and crying starts and the ability to leave the room for five minutes without someone howling for me. I’ve started leaving the house one night a week just I can work or surf the internet in total peace. I also hate three year olds. I think they’re bullshit.
.-= statia´s last blog ..Ding dong the witch is dead (or life with a destructive baby) =-.

I loved -mostly- being pregnant all three times, I’d do it again if finances permitted.

I am lucky enough to have employed both of the professionals you mention above. I am not now, and never was, physically perfect, however, there was no f-ing way in hell I, at 36, was going through the entire rest of my life with sagging breasts, thank you very much. I personally think that breast implants and/or lifts should be covered by health insurance as restorative surgery, but I digress.

As for kids’ tv, I’m in on pretty much anything on Nickelodeon.

As far as food and clothes, I determined before having kids to pick my battles in those departments. Hey if they want cereal three meals a day I’ll let them eat it. Number 1, eventually they’ll want and eat something really, really healthy like corn mixed with black beans. Number 2, the majority of humankind has survived on a far more limited diet. Number 3, I don’t get pissed off at the little buggers for wasting both my time and my food.

7 & 8 (diapers and laundry). The former never bothered me, the latter my husband “does”. Meaning he literally crams as much as he possibly can into the washer, transfers it to the dryer, stuffs it into baskets, empties the baskets on the floor on Saturday and we (including the kids 7, 6, and 4) take the piles and dump them into the drawers. (Now for my stuff, I do that my self). Don’t get me wrong, I HATE the way HE does laundry. But honestly, it gets done and it beats me doing it.

You hit the nail on the head with everything else, but I’ll add two things: My fear of the children being abducted, molested and/or murdered (I’m a former assistant prosecutor) and that I love the feeling I get when I look into those little faces with their great big eyes and know that I am the most important person in the world to them and they are to me.

Thanks for your blog Catherine. You have helped restore me to sanity many, many times, and I am especially grateful for your posts on deciding to medicate.

Of course, had you asked 6 months ago, it would have been the fact that I was trapped in my house with my 1 year old son, who was too hyper and loud to take out in public. So no one could ever see the adorable boy I saw at home, because he was an insane maniac with a Velocorapter shriek outside. I’m SO glad we’re past that stage!

But watching them together; watching my daughter teach my son to sign “Old MacDonald”, and her excitement when he gets it; the smiles and giggles; makes it all worth it. Usually.