Summary

The hardest part of parenting for the author is the relentless task of planning and preparing three meals a day for their child, every day for 18 years.

Abstract

The author initially believed that challenges like breastfeeding, sleepless nights, and changing diapers were the most difficult aspects of parenting. However, the realization came that the constant demand of providing meals for a child, three times a day, every day for nearly two decades, was the most daunting task. This responsibility felt overwhelming, especially when the parent's own energy and desire to cook were low. The solution the author found was to involve their four-year-old daughter in the cooking process, turning it into a bonding and teaching experience. This approach not only alleviated the parent's burden but also empowered the child with essential life skills.

Opinions

The author initially underestimated the challenges of parenting, believing that common struggles like breastfeeding and lack of sleep were the hardest parts.
The continuous need to provide meals for a child is seen as an exhaustive and never-ending task.
The author expresses a moment of honesty about their own limitations and exhaustion when it comes to meal preparation.
The child's enthusiasm for cooking and learning is a positive reinforcement for the author to teach them how to cook.
The author views teaching their child to cook as a practical solution to the meal preparation challenge and a valuable life skill for the child.
Despite the difficulties, the author acknowledges parenting as the hardest yet most fulfilling role they have ever taken on.

This Is the Hardest Part about Parenting

It's not the first thing that comes to mind

I thought breastfeeding was the hardest part of parenting. Ouch! That was tough, but nope! It wasn't the hardest part.

And then I thought the sleepless nights were hard. Those early mornings where you wake up feeling like a new zombie from the walking dead. But no, that stage passes.

Changing stinky diapers was tough, too. How can such little humans do this?!

The changes in the relationship after the baby arrives were brutal. Suddenly it's all about the baby and you cease to matter but you get over it.

None of that was the hardest until it finally hit me!

I will have to make meals for this child every day of her life until she’s 18 years old.

Planning meals 3 times a day for another person for the next 18 years seems a bit extreme, don’t you think?

Before I had my dear daughter, I would skip breakfast 3 times in a row and who cared? No one cared whether I fed myself or starved to death.

But these days it's not all about me. A 4 yr old little girl needs me and when it’s time for her meal, I better not tell her I don't feel like it.

I don't always feel like planning meals and sometimes I just want to lay in the bed and be free to do me but nope!

“Mommy, Im hungry, my stomach is rumbling” she jumps on me and says. Her stomach wasn't rumbling, it’s just a new sentence she learned, so she uses it every chance she gets.

“Oh, baby, I am exhausted and I don't know what's for lunch,” I say honestly.

“What do you mean, mommy,” she says. “Can you get up and make me something to eat, cooking is your talent! Get up, get up!” she yells.

Huh? Cooking is my talent? Since when?

There’s no point laying there because she is jumping up and down on the bed.

I drag myself out of bed to go find her something to eat. As I stood in the kitchen trying to decide what to make for lunch is when it hit me.

Making meals 3 times a day for another person who can't survive without me is the actual killer! It will get old real fast. I think to myself while she stands next to me, waiting for me to whip something together.

3 times a day. 7 days a week. 365 days a year. Times 18. That's brutal if you ask me. Deciding what to cook for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. There’s got to be another option!

Fast food? Yuck! she deserves better. Microwave meals? I know better! Meal planning for the entire week? Sure. But I still have to make those meals. Next idea?

And then a genius idea came to me. My 4 yr old has to learn to cook! That's the only way this relationship will work.

“Baby, come help me cook,”, I say. “Yay,” she exclaims.

She's excited about it. Great!

Every morning when breakfast is been made she sits right there and helps with making the eggs and good thing, she loves cooking!

When I make lunch, she sits right there and watches my every move with her cutest eager to learn how to cook for survival eyes.

She enjoys pouring her own juice these days and making her own strawberry milk. Yes!

She can make herself a bowl of cereal when she wants it in the morning. And when she does, she is so proud of herself and I’m a happy mom.

I assume in the next three years or so she'll be a great cook. I think. She will know how to make the basic meals for herself during those days when mommy has had it.

She might even be the one making the meals if we keep this up. It's looking good.

Teaching my kid how to cook at a young age is great!

It’s never too early to teach kids skills like cooking and it’s one they will benefit from for their lives.

There is nothing easy about being a parent! It's the hardest, most fulfilling thing I've ever had to do.

But planning meals every day? I don’t know about that!

Teaching my kid how to cook is the only option for both our sakes and so far she’s loving it. And I’m loving it.