Picture this:
You and a friend of yours go into separate rooms with a piece of string each. You call him or her on a phone and try to explain to them how to tie a knot. You know how to tie it very well, but as you can imagine, trying to explain to someone exactly how to tie this complex knot without the aid of pictures or anything visual, is very, very difficult. Almost impossible.
After a while, you and your friend believe that you have explained it well enough and that their knot looks like your knot. You come out of your separate rooms and compare. They’re completely different and you wonder how what you said translated into what your friend has done with their piece of string.
THAT is what trying to explain what being a parent is like to someone who does not have children. It’s absolutely impossible. They think they know what you’re talking about- they’ve watched videos and read books and websites and spoken to other parents, but you know that they don’t really know.
Parenthood is like belonging to some little clique, well… a really large clique, I guess. There’s a common bond with everyone who has a child, especially mothers, in my opinion, and it’s an unspoken KNOWING.
Trying to explain the ins and outs and how much your way of thinking changes and well, how everything changes, when you have a baby is absolutely impossible. I know now that I had no idea what I was in for. I had no idea how much my brain would change and how much my life would be about making someone else comfortable and happy. I do not matter anymore. Ash does. And that’ll likely change at some point, but right now he is my life, he is my everything.
But parenthood is so much more than that. You know what I mean. Or you WILL know what I mean. Or maybe you wont, and if that’s the case, please don’t try to talk to me about it because trying to explain to someone how to tie a knot without using any visual aids is REALLY fucking hard.
