washingtonpost.com
I know from my personal perspective that hearing news about how unhappy parents actually were, it took me a long time to feel ready to be a mom. I was 36 when I had my daughter. And then I finally got what everyone meant by, “It’s the hardest thing and the best thing that you’ll ever do.” Because you’ll never know the intensity of pure love like you have for your own child, yet, you’ll never be stretched so thin putting yourself and your needs aside to make sure that child feels that love and becomes a balanced person. And for many marriages, mine included, it is a terrible strain. I would like to be a fly on the wall of marriages of young children who seem to still like each other. We hated each other from month 5 to month 11. And I’d say it was partially because of how stressed we both were, but also because the love for my child now trumped that for my husband. So any of the things that I might let slide before, well, let’s just say I was no longer having it.
Anyhow, despite the difficulties associated with parenthood, the truth is, the reward of these lifelong bonds really do secure more happiness and contentment than not having deeply connected relationships. Read the full-length article at the WashingtonPost.com:
