5 Things Ive Learned About Parenting In Year 1

1. No one knows anything. The journey of being a parent is a series of questions and half-answers that barely satisfy. It’s unique to every person. It can’t be any other way.
2. I used to think of love as something special, an action you take to connect with someone on an intimate level. I’m starting to think that it’s an endless stream hidden by a curtain, and you can bathe in it anytime you want.
3. Hearing your kid cry is hard. So many big emotions, with so few skills in dealing with them. But this is life now. My kid will probably always have a lack of skills to deal with life’s challenges. So will I.
4. If I want to survive the emotional turmoil of being the parent then I have to freeze time. I have to learn how to experience the eternal now. If all time is now, then there’s nothing to miss. Another way of saying it: children bend space and time.
5. My relationship with my child is intertwined in my relationship with everyone else, including those who aren’t around anymore, and including myself.