A Mom Claims The Hardest Parenting Transition Is Going From Zero Babies To One Baby
Forget going from one to two or two to three, this mom says it doesn’t get harder than becoming a parent for the first time.
Any time you bring a new baby into the family, things get harder. No shade on babies — they can’t help it — but they are by nature a black hole where your energy goes to die. And it’s a debate as old as parenting itself to wonder which is the tougher transition: going from one to two kids or two to three kids. But TikTok user @sfmcguire has made a definitive statement on the matter. “Be for real ... Zero to one, babe,” she declares. “Every single f-cking time.”
“There is nothing that can prepare you for zero to one,” she continues. “At least with the other ones there’s some context, there’s some practice that you had. There’s nothing that can prepare you for having a baby. You’re in an adult diaper, you’ve been awake for 48 hours, you’re staring at your baby like this,” she zooms the camera in close to her hypervigilent face, “because you’re terrified that your baby is going to stop breathing for absolutely no reason. There’s no reason that that would stop happening. But anyway, 48 hours, like this. You are up at three o’clock in the morning, your tits are the size of flying saucers, and you’re googling ‘What happens if my milk doesn’t come in.”
She concludes with a deadpan: “Zero to one.”
Friends: where is the lie? And many commenters agreed.
“0-1 was the biggest slap in the face I’ve ever received,” wrote @kayleighshirey. “1-2 has been a walk in the park.”
“0-1 is the reason I will not be going 1-2 much less 2-3,” @samanthabeechhair chimes in.
But the responses were not unanimous, with many finding Baby #2 or #3 to be a far ruder awakening than #1.
“Newborn stage with my first was so relaxing and beautiful,” says kswizzle265 (PS, ma’am, please take me to this magical relaxing newborn, because mind did not get that memo...) “With my second I was running after a two year old with the baby in my arms, all of us in diapers, all of us crying.”
“I think 1-2 was much harder,” offers @crybabyazz. “Because that’s when you suddenly realize oh I really will never sleep or nap again. With just one you can TRY and sleep when they sleep.”
Obviously there’s no “right” answer here. One’s opinion on the matter is bound to come down to any number of circumstances. How difficult was your birth experience? What kind of support system do you have? Honestly, even your baby’s temperament can play a huge factor in your opinion: if you have a difficult first baby and an easier second, you might well think differently than someone whose firstborn slept through the night at three days old.
I guess the main idea here is: babies are always hard and you’re right to feel however you feel about that.
