Estimated reading time: 14 minutes
Parenting a toddler is full of ups and downs. They can torment us with their unpredictable, uncompromising and relentless nature. Equally, they can fill us with joy with their cute, excited and playful attitude towards life.
This post is my take on the parenting adventure of having a toddler. Therefore, in this more light-hearted post, I list my 10 most/least enjoyable parts of parenting a toddler, purely based on my experiences with my own toddler, with all the highs and lows of caring for these little creatures!
I want to hear from you if you relate to any of the points discussed below! Let me know in the comments which ones you agree with, or what would be in your list!
So, in no particular order, I will start with my list of the 10 least enjoyable parts…
My 10 LEAST enjoyable parts:
1. When they wake up too early from naps.
I, along with a number of other parents I am sure, often look forward to our toddlers nap time. My little girl naps around 2pm, which gives us a nice little afternoon break to relax, decompress or complete every single house chore that we haven’t had chance to do.
Usually, our little girl sleeps for around an hour and a half to two hours. However, I can feel rather betrayed when after only 30/45mins, I hear her waking up. That is my time to get things done, how dare she wake up early.
It is that sudden rush of adrenaline, as you hear them stir and start to say to yourself, “No, No, No! She can’t be awake already!” Sometimes we can get her back to sleep. Other times, we have no choice to set free our newly rested and invigorated toddler, to start a fresh batch of chaos.
2. Their desire to escape.
Toddlers remind me of the Velociraptors on Jurassic Park. Once they learn how to open doors, all hell breaks loose.
It seems to me, that toddlers always want to be anywhere other than where they are in that moment. My little girl could be playing nicely with her toys in the kitchen. However, she will frequently try and escape to go and sit on the sofa in the living room, in which there are no toys, no entertainment for her of any kind. She will sit there until she is collected by one of us, for the cycle to then repeat.
I am sure it is not just my little girl, but toddlers just slowly become masters of counter detection and escape.
3. It can be very demanding.
Parenting a toddler is relentless, they just don’t stop do they! From the minute you wake up, to the minute you put them to bed, they need 100% attention or stimulation. You have to constantly be alert to their needs. Are they doing anything dangerous? Do they need changing? Are they hungry/thirsty? Have they stolen something without me noticing?
It can be very draining for parents to maintain this level of alert! I don’t know if it is just my little girl, but as soon as I try and have a little 10 minute break and a sit down, she is on me straight away! Trying to climb onto my shoulders. Wanting me to get something for her. Or best of all, having a tantrum for no apparent reason at all. Which leads me on to my next reason!
4. Tantrums.
I don’t mind dealing with tantrums. They are part of growing up and you aren’t going to prevent them. However, tantrums still appears on this list, because it I want to focus on a specific type of tantrum.
My daughter is very adept at finding a reason out of nothing to have a tantrum. The most recent example was when putting her coat on ahead of going out. I referenced the fact that it was wet outside and that is why we were putting the coat on. However, she interpreted this as me telling her the coat is wet, therefore resulting in her refusing to put the coat on, stating that it is wet. The coat was not wet. She could feel that it was not wet. However, this did not deter her from crying, trying to roll around on the floor and escape.
The joys of parenting a toddler and dealing with the ridiculous tantrums!
5. Brushing teeth.
Again, this might just be my little girl, but brushing a toddler’s teeth is no easy task! I have had to come up with the most creative and varied ways to convince her to just open her mouth long enough for me to brush her teeth.
She can do it herself, but all too often that tooth brush is hurled across the room. I have to pull out all the stops. Whether it be, “Open your mouth for the aeroplane…..*aeroplane noise*”, or getting her to brush my teeth first then telling her it is now her turn.
Every day presents a new creative challenge. I win more days than I lose, but nobody tells you about these little challenges of parenting a toddler!
6. Collapsing to the floor.
You’re walking along with your toddler in a supermarket. They are holding your hand and everything is ticking along as planned. However, your toddler makes a decision that changes all of this. They decide that their legs no longer work. They drop to the floor and become a dead weight. You stand them back up again, only for them to collapse once more. Then it becomes a game, a game you neither signed up to, agreed to, nor want to continue.
It is a toddler’s act of protest. Albeit, not that effective. However, it can be very disruptive to the parents plans should they do this at an opportune moment. My little girl does this more to be funny, rather than in protest. Which makes it slightly harder to deal with as she is finding the whole thing hilarious and her laughing, is then making me laugh, which in turn motivates her to continue. She knows what she is doing!
7. Being sick.
This has made it onto the list due to an incident this week. It is still raw, hence why it jumps into my list of 10.
My little girl has mastered the art of being sick, in a silent and devastating way. I put her to bed earlier this week, she had been absolutely fine and everything was normal. I noticed on our baby monitor around 10pm that she had woken up and was just lying there quietly. I thought nothing of it and she soon drifted back off to sleep.
As I was going to bed, I went in to check on her. What I witnessed was nothing less than traumatic. I don’t deal with sick very well, this is usually my wife’s area of expertise. However, my wife wasn’t there that night.
My little girl had projectile vomited out of her cot bed, all down the wall, which had then pooled on the carpet, covered her bed in it, it was all over her hair and face and all bed sheets were soaked. Meanwhile, she was just lying there asleep in all of this carnage. It was nearing 1am, but I had to wake her up to clean both her and the room.
How did she cause so much sick fueled destruction, in complete silence? How did she just roll back over and fall asleep? Toddlers can just be little sick grenades that can explode around the house at any moment and I can’t stand it!
(“My Baby Memories” – Affiliate Link)
8. Not being their favourite parent.
It chops and it changes, but being the favourite parent definitely has its advantages when you have a toddler. However, when you are on the wrong side of this, it can cause a lot of problems.
It is easy to tell with my little girl who is the favourite. I found out I was not the favourite recently, in a not so subtle exchange with her. I was sat on our sofa, as my wife was preparing our little girl’s supper. Now she normally sits on the sofa and eats her supper sat with one of us, so I was waiting for her to come and join me.
Instead, she walked up to me and took me by the hand and started pulling me away. She then started to say, “No Daddy, no daddy!” getting more and more upset. Once she had successfully removed me from the sofa, she then proceeds to go and sit where I was sat, point to the space next to her and said, “Mammy”.
Having being adequately insulted, I went and found another seat.
9. Cannot make their mind up.
This is a new one I am starting to see more and more. My toddler unable to make up her mind. It can be over anything. What do you want for breakfast? What toy do you want to play with? What would you like to watch on TV?
No matter what the question, the usually outcome is me verbally listing every known answer, for her to reply “No” to every single one, only to then pick the first one you said in any case. I have started to just offer her a choice of a few options to combat this indecision. However, once a decision has been made, her mind will then change almost instantly and you are then back to square one. Sometimes I think she isn’t happy unless she is unhappy.
10. Goodbye privacy.
Privacy isn’t a thing for us anymore. If we want to go into the toilet, our toddler is there. Want to go upstairs for a moment? She is calling your name. Want a bath or a shower? Good luck.
I am sure this is relevant for children older as well, and is just the reality of parenting. With our little girl, we are now entering that stage when privacy is become less and less common.
I will just have to make sure I get payback when she is older and she is wanting privacy of her own!
My 10 MOST enjoyable parts:
1. Everything can be a game.
I am a big kid myself, I love finding more fun and creative ways of doing the simplest of tasks. Sometimes with a purpose, sometimes for absolutely no reason whatsoever.
For example, I made the “putting on socks” game with my toddler. Putting on socks has never been an issue or a problem, it was just a bit too boring for my liking. So I decided to introduce some high drama to the task, by being all loud and flustered and trying to do the task in as quick and as panicky a way as possible. My inspiration was acting as though the world was ending if this task was not completed within 5 seconds.
My little girl loves it, she laughs endlessly. This accomplishes nothing, but I just thoroughly love that you can make anything a game and fun and toddlers love it. I am going to be really sad when this ends.
2. Their energy levels.
They just keep going and going…and going and going, keeping on going and going and going. Endlessly going and going, until they cannot keep going any longer. But even then they try to go on that little longer.
As tiring as this can be as a parent, I do enjoy the energy our toddler has. It is like having an infectious little ball of energy in the home that can perk you up and keep you on your toes. I try to sit down and relax and my little girl spots this and is immediately asking me to get back on the floor so she can climb on your back and play “Horsey”.
I don’t know how they do it. You can sometimes see how tired they are, doing everything they can to fight it. You have to respect it.
3. How quickly they learn.
One of the many joys I have as a parent, is watching our toddler learn new things. It happens almost on a daily basis. It could be learning a new word, developing a new skill or making up a new game.
Their minds are like sponges and it is such a fun age to sit back and observe. There have been so many occasions recently, when she surprises me with things I didn’t know she had learned. I was recently driving her in the car and I started to yawn. My little girl pipes up from the back of the car with, “Daddy is tired” and then copied with her own version of a yawn. Which was more like a long groan.
I was laughing so much, I just had no idea that she knew what a yawn was and was able to correctly identify one and point it out. It is the little things that you enjoy!
4. Their personality starts to shine.
Seeing your toddler’s little personality come out is something really exciting for me as parent. Starting to see their personality traits come through, whether it be good or bad, is your little glimpse into their future.
Our little girl is starting to try and make us laugh by trying out her versions of little jokes, she also is developing a very independent nature and wants to do everything herself.
Regardless of the good or bad, it is so insightful to see how they are forging their own path and how their personality is being shaped.
5. The little routines/rituals.
These are the little things that I know I am going to really miss when my little girl grows up.
Currently, my favourite routine we have is on a morning. My wife likes to be the one to wake our toddler up, so she will get up and go and see to her. Once dressed, our little girl will run into our bedroom and will find me (usually still lying in bed), will give me a kiss and a cuddle, before then running back off to her Mammy. She departs with saying “Bye Daddy…see you later!”
It is just a lovely way to start the day.
6. They look cute in everything.
Toddlers have a unique ability to just make any outfit work for them. You could walk into a clothes shop blindfolded and pick out random items and a toddler will rock that outfit like you wouldn’t believe.
It maybe because they are all naturally so cute anyway, so you see past their clothing. However, it is just so funny to see them go from looking cute and cuddly dressed up in their dinosaur dressing gown, to the next minute they are rocking a sophisticated “coffee morning outfit”, with sunglasses, hat and all.
Despite this, I am apparently still terrible at picking outfits for our toddler…says my wife.
7. Learning to talk.
Ever since our daughter was born, I have been excited wondering what her voice will sound like. Now we know, as she never shuts up.
However, I wouldn’t change this for the world as we are now reaching the point in which we can have little conversations with her. Her comprehension has always been a lot further ahead than her actual speech, but she is now able to articulate what she wants a lot more.
I won’t lie, this has made a lot of things a lot easier, now she can tell us what she wants! But it is very rewarding seeing her vocabulary grow and grow, meaning we can interact with her more and more.
8. Their innocence.
It is a small point, however, having a toddler just reminds you how innocent we all are when we are young. The world outside can often shape who we are as we grow up, but it is a nice reminder that when we are all children, we are not conditioned to hate or judge, instead their instinct is to play, learn and bond.
9. Having cuddles.
For me, cuddles with our little girl come and go. It is very much on her terms and she isn’t the biggest fan of cuddles a lot of the time. However, all that means is that when we get them, we treasure them a lot more.
We have begun to recognise the times in which we are likely to get cuddles and when we definitely won’t get them. It has become a game now in which I ask my little girl if I can have a kiss and a cuddle, she says “No” and runs off. I have to then chase her and I get all my kisses and cuddles.
You have to enjoy the cuddles while they last!
10. Naps.
If your toddler has dropped their naps, I am so sorry. I have to be honest and say that I love that our toddler still naps through the day. She will have a little afternoon siesta each day and it can be bliss. A welcome break to what can be intense and draining days.
As parents we usually get between an hour and 2 hours a day of our toddler napping. We don’t know how much longer we will be getting this free time, but we are going to enjoy it for as long as it lasts!
Question for the comments: What would be your top Most/Least enjoyable parts of parenting a toddler?
I hope you have enjoyed this post, please share your thoughts, stories or questions below in the comments. Don’t forget to subscribe so you don’t miss out on future posts.
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I would say trying to get your sleep while they sleep at the same time is a win win.
I love this post! I’ve heard a lot of these from parents in the past. Toddlers always seem to have SO much energy- which can be good and bad depending on your energy levels haha
I love this post so much. We are at the stage where it’s never possible to tire our little one out. I do love her personality shining through and being able to chat with her though! One day we won’t have all this 🙁
Thank you! Yeah it is just so important to try and enjoys the ups and the downs, as it will all change before we know it!
Thank you! Yes it is often a hard enough task to just keep up with them!
This post made me chuckle. It’s funny that you compared toddlers to Veloceraptors! 😂I can relate to the part about naps – feeling robbed if they only nap for 30-40 mins! Although, my little one only naps 2 afternoons a week after he’s been to nursery 🙄. The supermarket is always a fun experience too! Thanks for sharing. Jade MumLifeAndMe
I’m not a parent but spent many years teaching children from Early Years up to end of Primary School and it was amazing to see the sudden shift when independence was suddenly discovered when the toddlers could toddle, haha! Great info and tips; useful for everyone from family to those who work in schools!
Thank you! I am sure you have a number of toddler stories haha!
Parenting can be heart. But it makes you happy. Looking at your child’s adorable face makes you happy all the time. That’s the joy of becoming a parent.
Completely agree!