If that was all you had to do.
Just hanging out with your kid all day, playing and laughing and cuddling? Yeah, you might go a bit deranged with boredom eventually, but it wouldn’t be that difficult.
The hard work is trying to do everything else, everything an adult has to do to live—while also being a mum.
Doing the laundry with a screaming child on your leg. Answering work emails while a toddler climbs up your neck. Cooking dinner with your hysterical baby in a bouncer. Having to care for a child when you’re sick. Mopping the floors with a kid who insists on running on them while they’re wet.
Kids become extra foul when they want your attention, which is pretty much 24/7. So if you need to achieve ANYTHING else in your day, they’re going to make your life difficult. It’s just how it is. They give zero forks about the fact you’re trying to buy groceries so they can eat. They couldn’t give a flying mince pie that you need to clean that bathroom, so they don’t die from crawling on that furry floor. They just want you—but being an adult requires you to do stuff, and that means you can’t always do what they want when they want it.
It’s not a bad thing, mind you. They will eventually need to learn that the world doesn’t revolve around them and they might need to wait a few minutes for your full attention, but they won’t learn it quickly. And they won’t make it fun for you while they do.
Everyone could be a great mum and enjoy their kids if that was the only thing they needed to do. But when you add housework, life admin, shopping and paid work on top of that—your patience will be stretched to snapping point.