'Dealing with other people's children': Parents share the most unexpected struggles that come with parenting

Emmy Pratt • Senior Editor

May 12, 2024 11:00 AM EDT

There is no way to fully prepare for parenthood. Even if you read every baby book in the library, devour countless academic articles about child-rearing, ask all the parents you know for advice, watch every baby TikTok under the sun, and study parenting tweets every Thursday, being a parent will continue to shock you every step of the way. We've all heard that parents don't get any sleep and that the twos are terrible, and sometimes so are the threes. We know that having a kid is expensive, but we don't know how expensive they are until you get your hospital bill after giving birth. When you have kids, you realize that some truisms people have spouted at you all of your life are entirely false, while others are so accurate that it feels like they were inspired by your kid alone. Parents recently shared some unexpected challenges of parenting on Twitter, and some of them are way too real.