Yet it ranks up there as likely the most significant contribution we will make to society. I am amazed at the number of parents who tell me that if they had known how hard parenting really is, they wouldn't have had children. I think this is a natural feeling at some point in the process when the challenges seem particularly difficult. Parenting is also exhausting. Anyone who has a teenager will tell you stories of the exhaustion that comes with coping with their pubescent mood changes, their challenges to authority and their natural curiosity about life's offerings that takes them into uncharted territory they may not yet be ready to tackle.
Parents wear themselves out looking after sick or injured children.
Or they simply get tired from the running around from one activity to the other. But the job of parenting also requires you to offer unconditional love while at the same time trying to mould their behaviour through your roles as leader, disciplinarian, counsellor, friend, banker, coach, mentor and taxi driver. Even when the kids are their most self centred and arrogant, you are their most important link to successfully venturing their way into an independent role in society. While trying to manage all this, parents are also trying to manage careers, income, households, relationships or marriages. If your child has attention deficit disorder, a learning disability or another physical or mental limitation, then your demands are all that much greater.