When you no longer have a newborn in the house and you miss that stage.
Of course, when you actually have a newborn, you may have 'baby can sit up envy' or 'baby can walk envy' or the biggest one, 'baby sleeps through the night envy.' But I digress.
(Actually, I would like to point out here that I don't have newborn envy at the moment, I just got both kids sleeping through the night very, very consistently thankyouverymuch)!
I have a friend who is thinking about having kids in the next year. She asked me what the hardest part about having kids is. At first I thought she was joking. I don't know. But she was dead serious.
Umm..okay. I thought about it and my answer was different that what I expected. I think the general thing that I've heard parents say is something along the lines of being flexible, or realizing that your child is their own person, doing what is best for your family regardless of what others think, or want, you to do.
Those are all very true things.
But, for me, the hardest thing about being a parent is having them grow up. Think about it. When you are pregnant they count on you for everything. Literally every.single.thing. Then they are born and they still need you constantly. But slowly (or actually rather quickly) they need you less and less. Suddenly the world is very interesting and all at the same time you are their entire world, and you aren't. They start crawling, walking, playdates, pre-school, regular school, activities, etc. And then you want a newborn again because a newborn counts on you for everything. And that my friends is where newborn envy stems from.
Why do I know that this is my biggest challenge about being a parent?
Because this morning when Lacey saw a school bus, she told me she wanted to go to school, and I had tears falling down my cheeks.
Stay my baby girl a little longer.
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