Is Parenting FUN? Is it Supposed to Be?

Could not agree more. Is it worth it? Mostly.

Fun. Only in a crappy, tiring, sun-burned sort of cheap-o amusement park way, where the food is too expensive and tastes greasy, and the rides make you sick to your stomach and rattle your head until it hurts.

Yup. Not fun. Weird, though, that the same park seems to please my kids to no end. Go figure.

[Reply]

Sometimes kids can be riotously fun… but parenting itself, no. I have never known parenting to be fun.

The biological urge is AMAZING. And the way babies smell. Same thing, really.

[Reply]

Rewarding.

But at the moment I’m looking for a shark tank and wishing I’d stayed with dogs.

[Reply]

I’m not so sure parenting has really ever been “fun.” A potential source of joy? Yes. Rewarding? Yes. Pains in the arse? Sure. I think most normal folks, men and women, don’t consider parenting fun. That’s not to say there are not fun moments, but normal folks would rather travel, go dancing, be with friends, etc.
If folks only had kids because they needed fun in their lives…oh boy.

[Reply]

I think stressing the notion that parenting should somehow be fun shows a complete lack of understanding of what parenting is. Fun is not the focus, never has been. Fun is something that comes along sometimes as you’re parenting, but doesn’t belong as a major description of parenting.

Amazing, rewarding, exhausting, hectic, those words work well.

[Reply]

As the working parent while my husband stays home with the kids, I may not be entitled to an opinion. I do take care of them the most when I’m home, but he’s home much more than I.

Having said all that, the best moments of my life, every single one that means the most has occurred since I had children. Worst moments, too, easily. As most of my childhood was short on “fun,” I can truthfully say, the majority of the fun I’ve had is since children, though not always with them. My second husband added considerably to my fun total, but then, he’s a kid at heart.

[Reply]

Yeah, fun is a curious word. They are funny, amusing, and enlightening. It is rewarding when they like you. But it’s hard to see past the day to day exhaustion and duties that are clearly no fun. I didn’t expect to have fun but I did expect to be better at it than I am and I did expect to enjoy it more than I do. Still wouldn’t change it but i am surprised by the reality of it.

[Reply]

If you trust the magazines, news media, the self-help books, and all those other sources of advice put out by “experts,” if you’re not having fun, there’s something wrong with you and your parenting. Haven’t you seen all those ads of mothers smiling as she helps her kid with homework, or reads a story, or cooks dinner, or watches TV? Where have you been? (Sigh.)

[Reply]

I was actually thinking about this question just the other day. Usually, it’s not fun. And I think moms rated those other things above parenting because as moms, we seek time to ourselves, our bodies and spaces to ourselves.

I have a friend with no children and she seems pretty damn chipper, I’ve noticed.

But I love having kids. It’s painful and tiring, but I do think, as your husband says, rewarding. And the thing we might forget the most is how much it makes us grow as people. They’re not the only ones changing.

[Reply]

I read that same article and have been talking about it with my friends who are parents. I like your assessment. Despite the challenges, it is rewarding and does have its fun moments. Some days…

When I recently told a friend I was pregnant again she said, “You must like it.”

“Like what?” I asked.

“Being a parent,” she said.

Why yes, I guess I do.

[Reply]

For what it’s worth, my Mama says grandparenting isn’t fun either, but she’s a worrier!!

[Reply]

I hear the same about Grandparenting. All they have to do is love and have fun, they leave the disciplining to the parents.

[Reply]

Of course there is some fun involved. But it does require attention, persistence, patience and a number of other things that all seem to boil down to work. But it’s certainly the greatest thing I’ve done so far in my life.

[Reply]

Fun? Maybe not the best word for parenting. Worth it? Absolutely. Even after a night I didn’t sleep. At all.
I see a few family members who didn’t have kids and in their age they are set and hardened. The parents are more flexible. So maybe after the kids are grown, it makes you happier? Or maybe thats just my crazy uncles and aunts.

[Reply]

I wouldn’t describe the entire parenting experience as pure fun, but there are fun moments.

I may be unusual, but I feel as though my life before kids was in black and white, and after it was in color. When I became a mother, my emotions became so much deeper and clearer.

As my kids are getting older and I am less mired in the repetitive tasks associated with babies and toddlers, we are having more fun together.

[Reply]

Slave labor and a retirement account…you mean kids aren’t that anymore? oooops.

I am actually one of the schmucks who thought parenting would be mostly fun. Yes, I saw what it was like for other folks but I figured they were doing it wrong…. yes, I’m that much of an egotistical idiot.

Don’t bother laughing at me or shaming me, though…karma’s got me covered big time…

[Reply]

I occasionally have fun while parenting but never does the parenting itself produce fun. I think parenting by definition sucks the fun out of any kid centered activity. It’s draining work, it’s unpredictable, the hours are long, but still I hold someone’s new baby in my arms and oh, the pangs. Which is why I’ve been banned from baby head sniffing…

[Reply]

Umm, yeah. Out of those 909 surveyed moms, where did “sex” fall on their list, I wonder.

[Reply]

Wait, I thought we had three boys so that they could do all the yard work. I went for a long time not wanting to have kids. I couldn’t believe it once when one of my SILs who had 1 kid at the time said growing up she always wanted 3. I could not image wishing that when I was growing up. And here I am with 3 and she with 2. I really enjoy these people I live with. And sometimes we have fun.

[Reply]

If I’d had a lot of choice in the matter, I wouldn’t have ever made the decision to have kids by myself. But I was thrilled with the surprise.

What I do see? People who never have children are… a little less… just a little less somehow. I don’t blog about my kids a whole lot, and when I’m talking to other adults it isn’t all about my kids. But I have noticed that people who never have them *tend* to be a bit self-absorbed and a lot more worried about the little things.

When you have to change from a self-centered world to an other-centered world, it changes your self, your world view, your goals, your ideas, everything.

FUN isn’t a word I would use to describe it. And people who don’t want kids shouldn’t have them & YAY for everyone who makes the responsible decision there. But I think we are biologically driven to it, and we are meant for it. Isn’t that what every species is driven to do above all else? Reproduce? Otherwise sex would not be so fun and it wouldn’t have taken thousands of years to figure out how to thwart (and still have failure at preventing) pregnancy.

We’re built for it, meant for it, incomplete without it. And more of us do it than SHOULD.

[Reply]

Nancy chaffs when she hears that often proffered politically correct statement about how being a mother is like having TWO full-time jobs. She raised two kids as a single mother, part of that on public assistance then going for her bachelors degree. When her first one was born she found just being a mommy and doing housework rather unfulfilling so she went to work to have some additional stimulation and challenge.

Now my own daughter has two grand kids; to talk to her you would think that she is overwhelmed by child-raising. And this is with TWO grandma’s who spend several days a week and on weekends helping out.

I guess it’s all a matter of prospective.

[Reply]

I think it is SOMETIMES fun. Sometimes rewarding. Sometimes difficult, infuriating, agonizing. Wouldn’t trade it for anything, but I readily admit that my monkeys are not always a barrel full of monkeys.

[Reply]

My parent’s claim that grandparenting is great fun. I agree, it’s great fun undoing all the disciplinary effort that your poor daughter puts in. Darling remember when you screamed “You’re ruining my life” about 15 years back, will I’m really doing that now.

[Reply]

“Some fabulously fun moments” Absolutely. Which automatically ranks it above housework in my book. I’ve never had even ONE fabulously fun moment doing the dishes or mopping. Of course, I’ve never worried myself sick over the laundry either. Rollercoaster rides are always exciting, but not everyone finds them fun.

[Reply]