Life has a funny way of keeping you in line. When you have one child, your plate is full and you manage the way you know how to do so. Another child comes along and you’re forced to grow into a new normal and in doing this, your boundaries and limitations are stretched. The stretching then leaves you thinking that it would be so easy to go back to just one child!
A few places or scenarios to do more of before the arrival of your second child:Restaurants
Two kids in a restaurant is a circus! One child is also tricky but between both parents, they can take turns going on small walks or pulling out all the stops of entertainment to endure a messy public meal.Airplanes
Sitting in one spot for long periods of time is a hard task for young ones! It doesn’t help the fact that so many people surround you, then adding to the pressure of keeping your children happy. With just one child on an airplane, it is easier to entertain, tend to every need, and split the work in half between multiple adults!Security at Airports
The beast. First is the line, and not like a fun-themed line like at Disneyland. A line full of stressed people who don’t want anything to do with little children getting in the way of their flight schedule. Keeping track of everyone’s boarding passes, going through all of the bags and pulling out the liquids, giving all electronics their own bin, folding up the stroller, taking off shoes, AND keeping track of and calming the fears of little kids. Yep, this is all a whole lot easier with only one kid.Anywhere Involving Water
The ocean, a lake, swimming pools, parks with rivers, heck, even splash pads! Children around water come with an automatic need for close attention. This becomes especially difficult when they’re off in different directions! One child is a lot more manageable around water!Theme Parks
Little ones spend a good amount of time in strollers while walking through theme parks, and that’s easy. But lines, bathroom breaks, mealtimes, and souvenir shopping add to the dynamic, and two children make for a handful!Road Trips.
Keeping one child entertained in the car is a major task and should be considered a triumph if done successfully. Two children on two sleep schedules with two personalities--now that deserves a ceremony and metal!Family Functions
Let's be honest, when there’s a family get-together, there’s almost always food. The talent of a lifetime is standing in a line and managing dishing out plates for multiple people, while moving down the line, keeping your children happy, and not spilling one or all of the plates in the process! Being around several people also means that the chances your two children are in the same spot at all times is very slim. Before child number two comes along, these few examples of difficulties in crowds are a lot milder.Church
Similar to restaurants and airplanes, church is a place where it’s pretty important to stay relatively quiet and in one spot. Two kids means one parent per child, and not a lot of listening involved for all four!Anywhere!
Anytime you leave your house you have to pack and plan for everyone leaving. Add buckling multiple children into car seats on top of that, and it basically takes twice as long to get two kids out the door than one!Sleep.
“Sleep when baby sleeps” isn’t quite as possible with multiple children as it was when there was just one. It becomes more and more tricky to sneak in naps after baby two arrives! So before that second kid comes along, do all of these things and more before you have TWO little bundles of joy. :) Now, I should note that obviously these scenarios are being looked at from a “Stretched Mom” perspective. This wasn’t written to discredit the difficulties of parents with only one kid, because those are 100% valid! It also wasn’t written to declare a solution of being done at one child (unless one child is all you want, of course). And it wasn’t written to insert regret for having a second child!