They say a picture paints a thousand words.
When illustrators, artists and creatives become parents, they find new things to express in their work.
Luckily for you, that means there are plenty of parenting cartoons out there to help you realise you’re not alone.
There are lots of other parents being driven crazy by exactly the same things that are driving you up the wall. Take a look through our favourite parenting cartoons; how many of these can you relate to?
Top 10 BellyBelly’s Favourite Parenting Cartoons
Parenting cartoons #1: Not Enough Hands
Crappy Pictures proves that parenting is a balancing act, both figuratively and literally. A trip to the shops leaves you with no hands free, but of course your kid still needs you to help out with carrying that stick he found. No, he’s not carrying anything else, and yes, you are carrying a week’s worth of groceries, but he still wants you to be the one who carries the stick.
Parenting cartoons #2: The Sick Day
The always hilarious Hurrah For Gin hits the nail on the head with this one. Remember when sick days actually gave you time to get better while also allowing you to enjoy some daytime TV? Yeah, not so much anymore.
There’s no such thing as a sick day when you’re at home looking after small children.
Parenting cartoons #3: The Ice Breaker
Remember, before you had kids, how you could go a whole day without talking to a stranger? Not anymore. As soon as you get a bump, old ladies will be coming over to share some of their wisdom with you, and this won’t stop until your kids are past the cute stage. Take a look at this cartoon from Bonnie Kimmerly. Pretty accurate, right?
Parenting cartoons #4: The Wake Up Call
Yep, this one by Fowl Language Comics pretty much captures every single morning of parenthood. Remember those lie ins you used to enjoy daily, before you had kids? No? Probably best not to. Sigh.
Parenting cartoons #5: The Sleep Positions
If you co-sleep, How To Be A Dad understands your struggle. He knows just how hard it is to get a good night’s sleep when you have a tiny baby taking up all of the space in your king size bed. He’s even made you a little guide so you can pick which sleep position your baby favours:
Parenting cartoons #6: The Family Dining Experience
Oh yeah, Sara Zimmerman from Unearthed Comics has clearly been in a restaurant at the same time as you.
Look, she drew every family meal you’ve ever had in a restaurant!
Parenting cartoons #7: Breastfeeding
When it comes to how you feed your baby, you just can’t win. Many women feel judged for choosing to formula feed, while at the same time breastfeeding mothers feel judged for daring to feed in public. Motherhood Comic illustrates her own journey with breastfeeding here:
Parenting cartoons #8: Natural Parenting
XKCD understands your struggle, with this cartoon about natural parenting. One minute everything is going swimmingly and then … uh oh, there’s a spanner in the works.
Parenting cartoons #9: Expectations Vs Reality
Everyone knows that having kids isn’t easy. You only have to set foot in a supermarket to see that parenting is a stream of high risk negotiations, to try to prevent the inevitable meltdown. You know it’s going to be tiring because every parent you know has aged about 15 years in those first six months of parenthood. And yeah, babies smell like poop, so that’s a bit of a giveaway. This hilarious comic from The Oatmeal captures how parenting is pretty much guaranteed to be worse than you ever imagined. There’s always going to be more poop than you previously thought possible.
Parenting cartoons #10: Mummy’s Juice
We had to sneak in another perfect cartoon by Hurrah For Gin. What can we say? She sums motherhood up perfectly in her brilliant cartoons. Who hasn’t been publicly humiliated by her child for her (no longer secret) love of the hard stuff?
