The Unspoken Stages

                When you first imagine becoming a parent, you see endless nights of midnight feedings, mountains of dirty diapers, and unending but adorable loads of tiny little onesies playing out in your future. You are told how tired you will be and how exhaustig a newborn’s 24/7 needs are. Somewhere on the horizon people mention a little something to look forward to known as the terrible twos, a common misnomer since most often this stage seems to rear its head well before the second birthday.

                Alas, this is just the beginning. As soon as you even edge towards feeling comfortable dealing with your small, unreasonable screaming child in public settings, which is of course where tantrums always take place, this child enters a completely new stage, leaving you yet again astonished at the strange new creature developing before your very eyes.

                What most advice-givers forget to mention is that looking back, the newborn stage will seem like a sweet and quiet, almost dreamy phase of life and the terrible twos will appear laughably easy.

                Because as children grow older, they learn how to talk, and as they learn how to talk, they begin to attempt to reason with you. This leads to the tyrannical threes and ferocious fours; then come the flabbergasting fives, followed by the sassy sixes and sevens. As they learn new things each day, they begin to ask more questions, demanding real thought from their parents as to why things have to be a certain way. While this is of course an important part of their developmental process, it can at times be extremely frustrating. Eventually there comes a point in every parent’s life where, as much as they may fight it, or for as often as they promised themselves they’d never say it, the only response to your child’s gazillionth question as to why they cannot do something, comes the dreaded, “Because I Said So!”

                Thankfully all of these stages come with short, blissful reprieves where that beautiful, innocent child emerges from within and showers us with her love; reminding us why this is all so worth it and giving us enough hope to make it through the next trying stage as she attempts to navigate her ever-growing world.