When I first gave birth to my daughter I was ecstatic, this was going to be as easy as it gets. I loved kids and I especially loved small babies that I could cuddle with so the fact that I now had my very own baby to do these things with was incredibly amazing or so I thought. Now don't get me wrong I absolutely adored my new little baby but taking care of your own child in no way compared to the baby sitting gigs I had in the past. Sure it often resulted in having one of them occasionally poop on my rug but that that rug had seen throw up and God knows what else over the years so that was nothing. Why didn't my parents tell us it was going to be this hard? Here are 5 things no on ever told me about being a mom:

1. Kids Don't Sleep

No, seriously kids don't sleep or at least they don't sleep when you do and quite frankly it can often feel like an inescapable nightmare. It's as if they have all been wired to think that getting sleep isn't a good thing. I've even been told time and time again that as a child, I too was guilty of practically never sleeping and perhaps this was just my revenge from causing my parents to be sleep deprived. Whatever the case may be my little one hasn’t slept much since she was born and I”ll be the first to tell you it sucks. I’ve tried everything you can possibly imagine(within reason of course) to get her to rest a little while long but if I’m not holding her in my arms 24/7 I can practically forget ever having a good night’s worth of sleep.

2. Baby Food Isn’t As Easy As You Think

Source: Pixabay

As a kid, I remember going through the grocery store and wondering why parents often complained about the high prices of food. I just could never truly understand or grasp how one could complain about a jar of food that was only about .85 until one day I realized that generally, that one jar of food is literally what it looks like, a snack. Seeing just how quickly my daughter went through one jar of your most popular brand of baby food was ultimately what encouraged me to start buying more organic baby food. Organic baby food not only encouraged my daughter to grow at a more healthier rate but it also helped us space out her feedings a bit more because she wasn't left feeling as hungry as she had been in the past.

3.Kids Demand Attention

Source: Additudemag.com

Spoiler alert: Kids demand attention and lots of it. I knew when we first had our daughter that kids demanded a lot of attention but nothing in life could have ever prepared me for the amount of attention she needed on a consistent basis. When she was hungry she needed attention, when she was cold she needed attention, when was hot she needed attention and then there were some days she only demand attention simply because she knew she could.

4.Kids are Expensive

I remember when my husband I first went through marriage counseling, our pastor told us that we needed to make sure we had saved money before started having children. I never really understood what he meant by that until we had our first child and then I saw exactly why. From doctors bills, to clothes, to just the basic necessities of life, kids are extremely expensive. In fact, they are even more expensive than most adults I know.

5.Parenting Books Lie

Ever read any book about parenting? I hate to tell you but none of them will work. Before having my daughter I had read so many books about parenting and learning how to properly care for my child and none of that works. One of the greatest educators of life is experience.