You learn patience...because if you didn't, child services would be knocking at your door...
You learn that it can take 8+ hours to watch an hour long movie...
You learn that adding 1 more child to your house is like adding an instant babysitter...
You learn interpretive dancing...from a 4 year olds perspective...
You learn to find your imagination again to tell stories and songs and play Barbies and dinosaurs...
You learn how to count time for a 4 year old...a week is FOREVER!
You learn how to laugh at the little stuff and you wish you wrote down every cute, adorable phrase said...
You learn how hard it really is to discipline your child and not laugh at your child or have a broken heart about it...(taking away the Barbies caused quite the meltdown)
You learn how to convince and bribe your child to eat, clean, behave, etc...
You learn what kinds of phrases you say (and no, they are not all bad!) often because they get repeated back to you...
You learn how magical you are when you can hula-hoop (poorly), juggle (2 balls), (attempt to) jump rope, color (in the lines!), blow bubbles, know the words to songs, know the characters names, can make up stories, make things appear/disappear, and more...
You learn that your TV shows aren't that important...but cartoons are...
You learn to eat things in front of your child that you wouldn't normally eat (ie: peas, beets, etc) because you want them to try them...
You learn new made-up words that mean things like "happy" or "sad"...
You learn that when they are hurt, you are hurt...
You learn how to explain adult concepts (birth, death, sex, etc) to toddlers...
You try to learn how to not over-react to things like spilled milk (on carpet)...
You learn how easy it is for children to make friends (and wonder why it's so hard for adults to)...
You learn that being a parent is the best job in the world...it is the hardest and most rewarding job at times...
You learn how to love like you've never loved before...
so true. All of it. Great post :)
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