The horror stories. When you are pregnant or even contemplating becoming pregnant everyone has to tell you about how horrible a newborn is, how awful toddlerdom is, how awful pregnancy is, how awful birth is, how awful breastfeeding is.

It's not awful. It's amazing. I see it like I do cooking. Imagine if someone asked how you made such an amazing meal and all you did was focus on the dishes?

Yes I've had bad days as a parent, and I've had one not-so-awesome birth and one awesome birth, I breastfed one child and not the other. I had one child that was a good sleeper and one that wasn't. But after two children, for me, what was the biggest difference was perspective. DD was a good sleeper at the time I thought she wasn't. Then I had DS and he was a shocking sleeper but I was ok with it, and it didn't stress me out as I just went with the flow and it worked for us.

My point is, try not to focus on the negatives. Sure there are plenty of horror stories out there, and it is always great to be prepared. But you'd be better off asking how people overcame the hard times of parenting than just focusing on the negative iykwim? Or you'll be a ball of stress before you've even conceived.