My wife and I are raising five children, and it's tough between two people, let alone with one that's working full-time and is stressed out and coming home to a lot of difficulties.
Everyone should have kids. They are the greatest joy in the world. But they are also terrorists. You'll realize this as soon as they're born, and they start using sleep deprivation to break you.
I feel bad for my parents for having to raise me. I was crazy.
When I sent those scripts, that was the lowest point of my life. We'd just had our second son, and when I went to collect them from hospital, I went to the bank to try and get some money to buy some diapers, the screen showed I've got $26 left.
Raising children is like a hit and run. You've been hit, you can't flag the person down, you're wounded and you don't know who to blame, and no one helps you. And it's weeks, maybe months, before you find out what really happened.
I thoroughly enjoy my children's birthdays, despite the fact their parties are an apocalyptic mix of hall-booking, Nerf-gun-hiring, refreshment-organising and talking to parents whose names you've forgotten.
You have to prioritize what you stress about when you have a child.
People get burned out in big families, you can even see it in the naming of children. Like the first kid, "You were named after Grandma." The seventh kid, "You were named after a sandwich I had. Now get your brother, Reuben."
The first time around as a mom, I held on really tight and I was so stressed.
(Cartoon caption:) I never really rallied after the birth of my first child.
Sometimes parents, when they have a lot of small children, it's hard because your time's got to get divvied up. There's no other way.
I remember my wife and I used to get on plane and see everybody else with their babies. They'd be putting strollers and car seats up above, and we'd think: Oh, please Lord, don't make us go through that.
The uncertainty of parenting can bring up feelings in us that range from frustration to terror.
To be quite frank and honest with you, it drives me absolutely crazy when my kids fight, the sound of them fighting and not getting along.
I'm scared of screwing up my kids.
No one tells you how hard being a parent is! We could have had a warning! It is literally the hardest thing I've ever done but I'm loving it.
I don't have children of my own so I can't say I know the plight of being a parent, but I can kinda understand some of the complexities of it.
I used to go to my kids' soccer games and I was the only parent who wasn't screaming, because I'd have to do a show that night. It was hard. Moms and dads get more emotional at those soccer and Little League games than at a professional game.
So much is asked of parents, and so little is given.
For a couple with young children, divorce seldom comes as a "solution" to stress, only as a way to end one form of pain and accept another.
Parenting definitely has some challenging moments.
That said, my kids are at home right now with my husband and I'm missing something important at my daughter's school which makes me feel sick inside. It's a lot of balance and a lot of really hard decision making.
Traveling with kids is tough. My best advice is don't do it.
She wasn't that tough on me, but I think she was often a little frightened - being a single parent. So it begets this quality of desired absoluteness that doesn't really exist. My sister could crack her up. She'd be getting into trouble and put the Steve Martin arrow through her head and mom would start to laugh. I didn't have the same sort of wiliness.
Having a child is difficult enough already, bringing with it a whole range of wonderful challenges, and we shouldn't be trying to guilt parents into 'there is just one way to do it'.
