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16. quot;In my pre-parent hubris, I truly believed that the awful-sounding aspects of parenting wouldn’t happen to me. For example, I believed I wouldn’t be completely exhausted to the point of being debilitated. My babies wouldn’t scream and cry day and night for no apparent reason. I wouldn’t feel isolated and alone. My previous traumas and issues wouldn’t rear their heads. I wouldn’t be criticized by seemingly everyone. I would feel confident and capable, and I would have the support I needed to parent well. Well, that’s not how it unfolded for me.quot;
quot;It took years of work – breaking down the seemingly endless days into more tolerable segments of time and finding effective coping strategies – before motherhood seemed worth it. Raising the next generation of humans is an enormous responsibility and a tremendous amount of work, but the gravity of it all isn’t always appreciated until you’ve experienced it yourself, and you’re in the thick of it.quot;
—Anonymous