"It changes how you view the whole world. I see the kid in everyone and everything. A mediocre coworker. A cashier at the grocery store. A teenager blasting music with no headphones on public transit. The principal at my kid's school. We are all still the kids we were years ago. Everyone is someone's baby. Every person, animal, bug, and living thing is just trying to protect, survive, and thrive. It just comes out differently based on how we were taught were the best ways to do it. That doesn't mean I like everyone or excuse behavior. But it does make a lot of curious things make more sense."
"My mom friends all agree this is an unspoken reality for us all: the intrusive thoughts. I'm talking about how you are watching your toddler run around the room happily, and then BAM, in your mind's eye, you see them falling and cracking their head against the table. I see every danger, in a paranoid way, my child could endure. She will be eating a bag of fruit snacks, and BAM, I'm imagining she's choking. On the bright side, it's made me aware of potential dangers, and I can minimize them as much as possible. It wears me out and terrifies me. I talked to my mom and other mom friends about it, and they're all like, 'Oh yeah, we have that.'"
"Choose memories. Kids are simple by nature. That elaborate plan, that trip that costs a lot, that trending gift item? They don't care and will not remember all of that. They will remember your moods, your playfulness, your silly face, th"
Parenting reshapes perception so caregivers see the childlike self in nearly everyone and interpret behaviors through that lens. Parenting triggers persistent intrusive safety worries, with vivid imaginings of potential injuries that drive constant vigilance and exhaustion but also prompt proactive harm prevention. Parenting shifts priorities toward simple, emotional experiences; children tend to remember moods, playfulness, and affection rather than elaborate plans, expensive trips, or trending gifts. Parenting involves heightened empathy, protective instincts, mental strain from imagined dangers, and an altered understanding of human behavior rooted in childhood survival and learned responses.
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