I hate to break it to you. I’d love to give you some hope, but I think it’s healthier to be realistic about it.
Your child won’t be different. You know those kids running around the restaurant, having tantrums in the supermarket, whingeing about lollies at the check-out? Your child will do that too. You tell yourself your child won’t be like that, that you’ll teach her how to behave better. But she’ll be just like all the other kids.
Because that’s how kids behave. All of them. Well, almost all of them. There are, of course, exceptions—a handful of them who break the mould. Congratulations if you get one of them; I’m truly happy for you.
But you probably won’t.
Kids aren’t like adults (shock!). They don’t react to things the way adults do because they haven’t had a lifetime of learning the acceptable way to deal with things. So when they want something, they just don’t understand why they can’t have it right now, and they have no concept of why they should be quiet about it.
Mums have far more patience than normal people. We simply have to. But when you’ve had 84 minutes of sleep, have only eaten three Vegemite crusts in the past six hours, have a cracking headache and have a trolley load of groceries to buy, your grasp on civility can falter.
It’s okay. You’re okay. Every mother has had a moment where she’d like to crawl inside the apple display and have a little nap while her child screams about pushing the trolley. You’re not a bad mother and you haven’t failed.
You know what the problem is? You have a child. It’s pretty annoying sometimes. But there is every chance your child will grow up to be amazing.