There are certain things that all parents of babies and young children experience. Parental “Rites of Passage”, if you will. As a father of three small children (six and younger), I can assure you that a great many of these come from personal experience.
- An up the back diaper blowout.
- A “Code Brown” in the bathtub.
- Being spit up on.
- Being puked on / catching a child’s vomit in your hands.
- Being away from home without a necessary item (diapers/bottle/pacifier/beloved toy).
- Showering with an audience.
- Child wanders off in a store.
- Using the toilet while soothing a crying child on your lap.
- Driving down the road with one hand while the other is blindly reaching into the back seat to get something for the kids.
- Child says something horribly inappropriate in public.
- Having to leave somewhere (store, church, restaurant, etc.) because of a screaming child.
- Knowingly going to work with your child’s spit-up, snot, poop, tears, or other substance on your clothes.
- A child has an accident while you’re out, and you have no backup clothes.
- Throwing away / donating a toy in working condition simply because you can’t stand to listen to it anymore.
- Lying to your child about what happened to that toy.
- Going for a drive in the middle of the night because that is the only way a screaming child will go to sleep.
- Using an expression, saying, or threat that your parents used on you.
Parents, what other rites of passage have you experienced?
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