According to Pew Research, a research center that provides information on social issues, opinions, and demographic trends worldwide, parenting is known to be one of the most difficult jobs in the world and many parents have faced challenges that impacted their lives. 

“I struggle with self-care a lot. I think many moms and parents struggle with this too and are unable to make time to take care of themselves,” said Alexandra George, a clinical trial manager and dance instructor. 

The same study also says that parents with children over the age of five receive different experiences compared to parents with children under the age of five. Especially to those who are new to parenthood, parenting can be rewarding, enjoyable, tiring, and stressful.

All these challenges can create many changes in their lives, contributing to a busier lifestyle that is harder for the parents to control.

Parents start to go through a lot of lifestyle changes after entering parenthood. 

The Russel Sage Foundation (RSF) says that parents don’t expect what could be coming up and don’t know how to prepare well. Eventually, they think they have to have it all under control, and all figured out, which leads to them getting stressed out. 

“The most difficult part about having a new child is that your life changes so much overnight, and there’s this huge adjustment. With my daughter, I sometimes felt like I didn’t know what I was doing; I didn’t know what to expect. With my son, that part was a lot easier because I knew what to expect, and I was more confident in my skills as a mother; I knew that every difficult thing would only last a short amount of time,” said Cheri Watkins, a Carlmont English teacher, and a mother of two kids.

According to RSF, parents will often feel stressed and overwhelmed by the many responsibilities they take on as parents. They mainly start feeling this way when they first experience all the demands they have to meet as a parent. 

“It’s a lot of constant responsibility that even when you are sick or not in the best mood, you still have to watch over your kids as they crawl on the ground,” said Dara Takemori, a dance instructor, a mother of two kids.

The inability to control scheduling in family life can affect the parents’ stress levels, and being able to find good enough childcare creates difficulties for the parents, specifically for those who don’t have a lot of support in the economic area.

Childcare requires a lot of time commitment, and there are often not enough hours in a day for parents to do everything, stressing them out, and causing them to have a poorer sleep quality, according to RSF.

This stress adds up and cuts into their sleep time, especially for newer parents who have not streamlined their care and are still in trial and error.

Panda, a support corporation, says that parents go through exhaustion because of how they adapt to the changes in their children’s sleep or feed schedule.

“So there’s a lot of health issues that you have as a woman when you’ve given birth and have a pregnancy, definitely a lot of sleep deprivation. I’m sure if I never had kids, I would probably have banked more sleep,” said Nandini Venkatesh, a mother of two kids.

It can be complicated for a parent to balance work and family life.

Many surveys show that more women take time off work to parent their children than men, and their work time is reduced for that. However, a lot of women find this to be a good decision, even though some say it can affect their overall career. 

“One parent ends up leaving their job to be the child care provider. So when I teach dance in the afternoons and evenings, it allows us to pick up the kids from each other and avoid paying extra fees for aftercare,” Takemori said.

Pew Research identified that around 51% of mothers find that working as a mother makes it more challenging for them to advance in their careers. Mothers with children under the age of 18 are less likely to say it affects their work life and that it’s more difficult for them to advance.

“Being able to lean on my mother-in-law to watch the kids here and there and or hire a nanny who can be a part of my village so I can go to work and return. Those types of things have helped me to find balance because I don’t think I could have done it without any external support,” George said.

Parents will also go through a wide range of economic challenges when they have children. Some are forced to change how they spend their money on basic necessities, medical bills, and childcare.

According to Pew Research, married parents find raising children easier financially than unmarried parents.

“I feared being a financial burden on my marriage. If you’re at the right time in your life, like with the right partner and the right job, it’s surprising to find how easy those things are. My husband and I became stronger because now we’re like parents together. We aren’t just a partnership; we’re achieving growth in this family together,” Watkins said.

Balanced Awakening (BA), a corporation that strives to create a safe space for women, says that changes in society have put pressure on parents because they are expected to be able to manage it all. This also connects with the parents’ economic state; they try their best to meet these expectations by taking multiple jobs and barely making ends meet. 

“But I would say that you want to find the right partner, you want to be in an established career and be financially stable, but after that, like, kids don’t limit what you can do with your career or your future or your goals,” Watkins said.

Around 35% of parents are concerned that their children will be bullied, and 40% are concerned that their children struggle with anxiety or depression, according to Pew Research.

“You’re just constantly thinking about feeding, changing, you know, is the baby getting enough to eat? Is the baby growing? Are they breathing? Are they sleeping? So just like all that constant worry, you never get a break,” Venkatesh said.

As stated by Pew Research, many parents find that their children bring them happiness despite the complications. 

“Everything in my life changed when I became a mom. I think it was the first time I truly felt happy,” said Watkins. “Overall, it’s been my life’s greatest blessing and the happiest thing I could ever imagine.”