Life before and after motherhood – 20 ways your life changes

Everyone tells you your life will change once you have children. That’s probably the greatest understatement of a lifetime. The truth is, the script before and after motherhood is completely flipped.

Having children, while hugely rewarding, is probably one of the biggest shocks you can encounter out there, as us largely selfish creatures have to shelve most of our freedom and life’s luxuries for a new way of life entirely focused on our sproglets. Talk about life being turned on its head!

Here are 20 ways you can expect ways you can expect your life to be very different before and after motherhood.  If you’re reading this with your child-free life behind you, I’m guessing there’s going to be a lot of nodding in agreement as you’re reading this.

20 ways your life changes before and after motherhood

1. 5am used to be the time you stumbled home from a big night out – now it’s the time you’re routinely woken up to clock onto mother shift. A rude awakening in the most literal sense.

2. You used to spend far too long on the toilet numbing your brain with Facebook – now you can’t go to the toilet alone, and usually have your toilet companion clambering all over you while you do so. Personal space? No – you officially no longer have any.

3. You used to sing like nobody’s listening in the shower – now you sing The Wheels on the Bus, on repeat.

4. Your bedroom used to be an oasis of sleep – now it’s like someone opened up a pop-up Toys R Us shop in it. Groovy.

5. You used to be the queen of the party – now the only floor time you’ll get is as queen of the dolly disco..coming to a living room near you soon. Rad.

6. Eating used to be one of your favourite past-times before it got replaced with dustbin duty as you duly hoover up mushy leftovers. Bon appetite!

7. You used to be the pillar of fitness (well everything is relative)! Now your workout includes lifting, bouncing and mainly power-panic-pram-pushing . Move over Davina.

8. Formerly able to drink most people under the table – now your anybody’s after one drink. Hic!

9. Back in the day, the only time you went to bed at 9pm was when you hadn’t gone to bed from the night before – now it’s your de facto bedtime. Rock n roll.

10. Going shopping used to be taking an afternoon out to try on ridiculous outfits you would never wear, just because you could – now it’s a game of supermarket sweep round Tescos. Glam baby, glam.

11. Before, TV used to be all about Breaking Bad, Peep Show and Animal Planet – now TV doesn’t get any more bad ass than Rasta Mouse and animals only come in googley-eyed cartoon format.

12. Hoodies used to be something you wore when you were thirteen along with a face full of acne – now they’re something you hide your sorry ass under when the rain is beating down on your bedraggled pram- pushing-self.

13. Formerly able to sleep deeply and soundly for England, now strange non-existent sproglet sounds rouse you from your sleep far too much than you care to recall. Just simply cruel.

14. Children presenters used to creep you out before, now you’re unable to watch pretty much any of them without being pestered by extreme kiddy fiddler suspicions. Yucks.

15. Holidays used to be all about living the sun-kissed Ibiza or snow-filled slopes dream – now it’s all about living the child friendly reality.

16. Once upon a time when someone said you looked lovely, you’d thank them graciously. Now you get eaten up by the ground beneath you as you realize they’re actually talking about your offspring, not you – you silly!

17. Your Glastonbury and party days are a fading memory which have been replaced by family friendly festivals and kiddy raves. Living it large!

18. You used to be an expert in bar hopping – now the only hopping you do is between playgroups in a bid to keep your sproglet busy…and your sanity intact. Who needs a social life eh?

19. A lazy lie in used to mean rolling out of bed at 11am – now you’re lucky if a lie in equates to anything after the 7am mark. If it does, you’re probably too busy worrying if they’re still alive to actually enjoy it anyway!

20. You used to immerse yourself in all the latest, greatest reads for hours on end…now your bedside book stack consists of Jack and the Beanstalk and The Hungry Caterpillar, which you have to read about 5 times each on a daily basis. Oh for the love of literature!

What shocked you most about the differences in life before and after motherhood? What do you most miss from your pre-kiddy days? Leave a comment and let us know.

42 comments

  1. I can relate to so many of these! We used to have clean walls, now we have dirty marks, paint splatters and dents from various vehicles (but I wouldn’t change a thing!!).

    #MMWBH

  2. Yawn…. I know the feeling.

    Feels like I’ll never get enough sleep again. I’d trade all the rest for a full nights sleep and a long lie in, getting up before dawn is not much fun.

    • So everyone keeps on telling me, one day we’ll be dragging them out of bed! Holding out for that day haha…getting up before dawn is very rude and unnecessary but try telling them that!

  3. Ha! Almost none of this applies to me…! My poor babies have been dragged along with us to festivals and parties — our lives haven’t changed too much since our twins were born! And, as they take after me, they like their sleep too (thankfully)!! We wake them most mornings at 7.30!! They’d probably sleep later if we weren’t turfing them out of their beds!! Not sure if I should be glad or feel like I’m missing out?! 😉 Thanks so much for linking up with #TwinklyTuesday x

    Caro | http://www.thetwinklediaries.co.uk

  4. Love #4… all the toys in our bed are a direct result of #1, a baby who gets up way too early and we try to have him play with some toys in our bed as we get an extra 30 minutes of half-sleep half-getting-baby-fingers-stuck-up-our-nostrils.

    #thetruthabout

  5. Ha! Yes that’s all so true! There are no more compliments for us, just the kiddies. The singing in the shower to entertain the little ones and lack of privacy in the bathroom seems to continue on lol My kids can be happily playing and if I go to the bathroom it’s guaranteed one will be knocking on the door asking me for something! #snotallabout you x

  6. It is hard to explain to someone what doesn’t have kids, just HOW different life is. I do love it though – especially for the child-friendly holidays, hello Disneyland!! Thanks for linking up to #snotallaboutyou 🙂 x

  7. I miss being able to do things in my own time! Now I have to rush my makeup before the kids run of with my brushes, rush to tidy the house at nap time rush home from work aaagggghhh great blog spot on with everything we have the same life!! Haha! Thank you for linking with #snotallaboutyou

  8. LOL. I am so the mother who if I haven’t heard from my kids by a certain time in the AM I go and check on them and of course end up waking them up. I have also been known to hold my pee to sleep a little longer because once my feet hit the floor it’s like they have some kind of “mommy is awake” f-ing radar! Craziness! #snotallaboutyou

    • Some days is more like EVERY day! There is nothing so blissful as being able to sit on the toilet and do a slow, relaxing dump without being climbed on or screamed at since becoming a mother is there? Worth it’s weight in gold…haha!

  9. So true and funny. after ten years I cant actually lie in beyond 7am. &am is a lie in of course but even if I get a chance my body has decided that it cant be. thanks Talya for another great post #momsterlink

    • I actually got the chance to lie in to 8am the other day (can you believe it!!?) but then you know what, I couldn’t get to sleep that night and then had a very rude awakening the following morning…so perhaps it’s just as well Kirsten! Glad you enjoyed the post 🙂

  10. So true! So true! The sad thing is many of the children’s TV presenters I grew up,with did end up helping police with their enquiries! #momsterslink

  11. lol – yup can relate to almost all of these especially the holiday one (sore subject at the moment!) and it would be so nice not to get up at 5am. Roll on winter when it doesn’t get light so early… (only kidding). Wouldnt change it for the world though 😀 #momsterslink

  12. Thanks for linking with #momsterslink lovely lady. I won’t leave another comment ;o)

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