What are the origins of this fun-filled festive custom?
Those potted plants you spent so long nurturing? A toddler's soil-digging adventure! Prepare to put things up high, or get ready for sorry-looking plants and a whole lot of sweeping.
There are always online fitness classes and home workouts, right? Just be prepared to incorporate a curious child into your sessions and to have to deal with any number of demands while you're trying to hold a plank position.
Not just your own walls, but any white walls. While they may have once seemed calming and minimalist, a white wall in your own or anybody else's home suddenly becomes a source of fear—are there any stray crayons or pens around?
You know those days when you feel overwhelmed by work and social commitments? Prepare to look back on them as the glory days of carefree indulgence once you have to factor in looking after babies and toddlers on next-to-no sleep.
Gone are the days when the end of the working week might mean a long, leisurely morning catching up on sleep. Once the night feeds are over, prepare to be bounced on at 6 am by enthusiastic morning people. All toddlers are morning people!
Replying to a text or scrolling through your social media might not seem like a treat, but just wait until the demands for kiddie cartoons come along. And say goodbye to text privacy once they learn to read.
Nobody's saying the spark has to die once kids come along, but it certainly takes a lot more work to fan the flames. Struggles for time, privacy, and overcoming tiredness can take the spontaneity out of getting romantic.
Even the best timekeepers in the world find themselves in a constant race against the clock once kids come along. Ill-timed naps and urgent diaper changes, missing items of clothing, and refusals to settle into a stroller all take their toll on your timekeeping.
Most parents-to-be are prepared to put partying on hold, but assume that quiet nights in with a movie will still be on the table. Between getting babies and kids to sleep and clearing up the debris of the day, it's a challenge. And somebody always wakes up during the best bits.
As soon as you take a sip of your freshly-brewed tea or coffee, you'll probably have to put it down while you deal with one emergency or another. And, because you have to put it out of kiddie-reach, you'll probably forget where you left it.
While you might once have had to work up enthusiasm to head out to your yoga class or gym session, it will start to seem like an absolute indulgence once you're battling to find a moment to yourself.
Air travel might seem like a drag when you're without children, but just wait until you have kids in tow. Those days of breezing through security and relaxing in the lounge will seem like luxury once you're balancing kiddie demands, endless luggage, and numerous passports.
Unless it involves farmyard animals and bright colors, you're unlikely to make it all the way through a book for a while.
Very few grown-up social situations are enhanced by attempting to bounce a restless baby on your lap or attend to a bored child's calls for attention. While child-free friends will no doubt appreciate the opportunity to spend time with you and yours, it's rarely a relaxing experience for parents.
While leaving the house was once a simple matter of getting yourself dressed and finding your keys, it suddenly becomes a battleground involving increasingly-angry demands to "find the other shoe!"
Babyproofing your home means having to put all manner of locks and contraptions on cupboards, closets, and fridges, or face the messy (and potentially dangerous) consequences.
Cleaning might not be your favorite pastime, but it starts to look like an exercise in relaxation once you factor small children into the equation. No sooner is one area cleaned that another looks like a bombsite.
The sound of...nothing. No baby cries or toddler outrage or endlessly-repeated nursery rhymes. Soak it up while you can.
Gazing out the window, catching up on reading, firing off a few emails... Traveling by train can be a relaxing experience, until you're fending off glares from other passengers as your child kicks the back of their chair, pokes their book, or spills juice all over the table.
"I'm just going upstairs for a long soak in the tub," said no mother of young kids ever. Getting five minutes in the shower uninterrupted is the new dream.
As soon as you plant your foot down on a stray piece of Lego, you'll be wary of walking barefoot anywhere in your own home again.
Remember the days of being able to watch what you wanted? Prepare for theme tunes and shrill cartoon voices to become the soundtrack to your days.
Pre-kids, the simple act of taking an undisturbed bathroom trip would not be something many people classified as a luxury. As soon as babies become mobile, you can prepare to say goodbye to closed bathroom doors for the next few years of your life!
"Sleep when they sleep" is the enthusiastic advice given to virtually every expectant mother. Except there's a list of countless things that need to be done, which you desperately try to cram into the unspecified and usually all-too-short time they might be asleep during the day.
No matter how bad your cold or migraine, your kids aren't going to give you the day off. Prepare to load up on painkillers as you attempt to wade through the parenting duties with a raging fever.
Throwing keys, cards, and a couple of bits of makeup into a pretty purse might not seem like a luxury now, but just you wait. Once you need to cram toys, bottles, wipes, and assorted snacks into your bag, you'll realize how much you miss being able to grab your small handbag and go.
Take pride in your multi-step skin care routine and painstakingly-applied makeup? Prepare to scale it down, drastically. Washing your face, brushing your teeth, and wearing clean clothes constitutes 'making an effort' once childcare takes priority. But let's face it: as much as we miss these things, the little time-stealers are more than worth the sacrifice.
Sources: (Metro) (BuzzFeed)
There are many things that, pre-kids, seem like basic human rights: sleep, for instance, and going to the bathroom without somebody barging the door open. It's often only once kids come along that people realize how many day-to-day things they took for granted in the days before diaper bags and upturned toy baskets. It's all worth it, of course, but there are still plenty of things that parents look back on wistfully as they hunt down a missing shoe for the fifth time that day. Ready to get real?
Click through this gallery to discover 30 things people take for granted before having kids.
Regaling friends and family with a story might not seem like anything special, but try to remember that when your social life revolves around park play dates. Trying to recall what you were saying before dashing off to the swings is a challenge!
Late nights out partying probably already seem like a distant dream during pregnancy, but many parents-to-be assume that it's just a short break in the social schedule. Wrong! If you make it through streaming a whole movie post-9 pm, it's little short of a miracle.
A few cocktails the night before might once have been followed by a lazy day streaming TV series and eating hangover-busting food. But once kids come into the equation, even a second glass of wine with dinner starts to look like an invitation to a next-day nightmare.
The things you never imagined you would miss before having kids
Who knew going to the bathroom alone would feel like a luxury?
LIFESTYLE Parent life
There are many things that, pre-kids, seem like basic human rights: sleep, for instance, and going to the bathroom without somebody barging the door open. It's often only once kids come along that people realize how many day-to-day things they took for granted in the days before diaper bags and upturned toy baskets. It's all worth it, of course, but there are still plenty of things that parents look back on wistfully as they hunt down a missing shoe for the fifth time that day. Ready to get real?
Click through this gallery to discover 30 things people take for granted before having kids.