When you first spread the news that you’re expecting a child, you will no doubt find yourself inundated with many helpful tips and things to prepare for. Once you’ve reached the point were it’s quite obvious that you’re pregnant you may even find that well meaning aunts, strangers out shopping, even the weird old lady that lives down the street, will start coming up to you and sharing their experiences. These things will no doubt include both the good and the bad like:

The joy of holding your baby for the first time.

The lack of sleep.

The wonder you feel when your baby first smiles at you.

The dirty nappies (diapers).

And a myriad of other things

But there’s a lot they don’t tell you, so with that in mind, here’s a few things I’ve learnt in recent years as a mother to a boy and twin girls.

For the first two to three years after your child is born, you will forget what a hot meal is like.

Regardless of whether or not you’re bottle or breastfeeding your child: without fail, the moment you put your meal on the table, your child will demand theirs. Or if it’s not food they are after, they’ll decide that this is the best time for them to need a change or attention.

No matter how well you child proof your home, the second you turn your back on them they get themselves into trouble.

You could sit and watch your child for hours as they happily play with a rattle, but the minute you decide now would be a good time for a toilet break, it seems they become engineers with an uncanny ability to pull the rattle apart.

This only gets worse as your child begins to crawl or walk, here you’ll find yourself cutting short said breaks as you race to capture your child who has managed to sneak out a window or climb on top of a table.

The second word your child learns will probably be ‘No!’

It seems from the moment they learn to talk their speech is punctated with the word no. While you may love to hear the sweet sounds of ‘mummy’ coming from their lips you may find yourself quickly deflating as that becomes ‘mummy, no.’

As your child’s speech develops you’ll soon notice that the ‘no’ develops right along with it, turning into phrases like ‘I didn’t do it’ or ‘That’s not mine.’

From the minute your child becomes mobile you’ll find that you no longer have any privacy as they trail you from one room of the house to the other.

You’ll soon discover that you can’t even escape them in the bathroom.

No matter how convincing you try to be as you tell your child that vegetables taste good and are good for you, if they don’t want to eat it they will find a way not to.

The opposite of this is also true, you can tell your children as often as you like that eating things like dirt, worms and in my case spiders is really not a good idea, but somehow they always find a way to get them in their mouth.

Once your children have hit the age where they are going to school and making new friends you’ll discover that no matter how much love and affection you give them, it all counts for nothing if their best friend as the new super dooper gadget and they don’t.

This is of course is not just limited to gadgets, it could also be things like how late they are allowed to stay up, places they are allowed to go and things they can watch on television.

These are just a few of the things that I have discovered as I’ve made my way through the world of parenting. I’m sure there are a lot more things I’ve yet to learn, but half the joy of parenting is the experiences you share with your children.

Let me leave you with this one last note.

I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world, each and everyday with my kids is like a gift. Good day or bad, all it takes is a simple smile or an ‘I love you mum’ and I know it’s all been worth it.

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V Brown is a mother of two primary aged children and one high schooler. For more stories, articles and other information please visit Family Life

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