1 day Ago By Edwina Bartholomew
“All of my friends who have kids are in hell. I actually don’t know anyone who’s, like, happy and has children at this age..
. anyone who has light in their eyes..
. anyone who has slept.” With that sentence, 27-year-old Chappell Roan launched one million articles and TikTok takes from parents who strongly and very vocally reject her opinions on raising kids.
But what if Chappell has a point? Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today I was mulling over her comments from the ‘Call Her Daddy’ podcast at IKEA yesterday. I made the mistake of taking my three-year-old along for the shopping expedition. To anyone at the checkout at 1.
35pm yesterday afternoon, I sincerely apologise. He made it through the couch and bedroom department without incident but things turned south when he wanted to push the trolley through the marketplace. As doonas and photo frames tumbled, I decided he should have his own trolley.
That idea fell flat (pack) when he insisted on transferring all the items from my trolley to his trolley. By the time we made it to the counter, he had absolutely lost it. Not even the opportunity to scan the items at the self-checkout could draw him out of his misery.
I had to carry him under one arm to the car, screaming with my bags of Swedish homewares in the other. Did I at this point have light in my eyes and joy in my heart? No, I did not. While women around the world responded with videos of them cradling their babies under flowering magnolia trees, there are plenty of parenting moments that don’t live up to the Huggies hype.
Stella Joy defended Chappell in a video that has now been viewed more than 1.2 million times. She explained she believes other mothers got so defensive because “they don’t like having a mirror held up to the fact that they fell for the greatest lie ever told,” which is, from the moment they hold their first little baby doll as a kid, that “being a mother is our ultimate goal and that if we reproduce, we will be fulfilled”.
Well, that really threw a Gabby Cat* among the pigeons. *A niche reference you will only understand if you have young kids. The fact is parenting is hard.
That is nothing new. It’s been hard for thousands of years. It’s also not for everyone.
In Chappell’s case, she is winning Grammys and travelling around the world while a lot of her childhood friends at home have young kids and are right in the thick of it. Is one situation happier than the other? No. But is she entitled to her personal choice? Yes.
Would I rather be at the Grammys than cleaning up after my kids? What do you think? I had kids later in life; my daughter was born when I was 38 and my son was born just before I turned 40. I had lived a life by then (literally going to the Grammys) and I am incredibly grateful for that. Even now as I write this, I’m choosing my words very carefully.
It’s not because I don’t want to be honest about my experiences as a mother, it’s because mothers can be the most vitriolic of all online commentators. So often the nastiest comments on social media come from profiles that read “Mother-of-three, lover of rainbows and cupcakes” and yet their opinions can be cutting and cruel. So here is my honest take — I love my kids but I also relish time by myself.
I love holding them as they drift off to sleep but I am so relieved when I wake up after an uninterrupted night. Maternity leave was great but I loved coming back to work and rediscovering my old self. I hate going to the park.
It’s boring. Cooking for toddlers is a complete chore and has completely destroyed any love of being in the kitchen. Sometimes the screaming and shouting and the endless mess is so overwhelming that I absolutely lose it, and have to apologise to my kids later.
Is that normal? Who knows. It’s normal for My Little Pink Pony Club. The goal is 60 per cent solid sleep, 70 per cent light in my eyes, and 100 per cent solo trips to IKEA in the future.
Who is with me?.
