Joy Of Parenting

Is parenting draining you out, asks Homaira Kabir.

- Homaira Kabir

As my children get older and leave the family nest one by one, I find myself reminiscing about childhood moments that are nothing but joyful and alive.

The strange thing is that these moments rarely felt as golden when I was living them. The picture of my daughter laughing in the garden doesn’t show my agitation at my son sulking out on the porch. The memory of my little one’s infectious toothless smiles is untainted by the fatigue of those long and sleepless nights. Nor does the photograph of my oldest at two, sitting on a marble horse wearing dark sunglasses and a Hollywood hat, mention the nightly ordeal of putting her to bed.

Of course, we tend to think of the past as the ‘good old days’, especially when it involves our children’s earlier years. We compare them to the present and recall the happy memories of innocent times. We forget the toil and the struggles and make little of them in our current minds.

There are reasons we dismiss the not high moments of our past. Research shows that we remember our lives largely by ‘peak’ moments – the moments that were emotionally intense, and not necessarily by the little irritations and stresses that are part of life. And luckily parenting provides us with ample delights.