4 yrs med school
3 yrs residency
3 yrs fellowship
To prepare to be a doctor
And I'm good at it.
Really good.

Then comes parenthood.

No training
No classes
No manuals
To prepare to be a parent
And I feel like I'm often failing at it.
Really failing.

With the 1st baby
It's exhausting and overwhelming
But we finally get the hang of it
Think, ok I can do this.

Time for another one.

Then the rules change.

Any insights or advantages gained from the 1st time around are crushed by the weight of carry for two kids.

The kids are completely different.
The dynamics are changed.
It's impossible to prepare.
Impossible to learn from the mistakes.
The missteps.
The struggles.

But the love
And the laughter
Remind us something is going right.
It's gonna be ok.

And the big, independent kids make us miss the cuddly, snuggly babies.

We've got this.
We can make it work again.

So three kids it is.

But the hardest parent of parenting is that every kid, every situation is different.
Each challenge new.
Each age, each development milestone, every year, every kid brings new tests, new tribulations, new angst.

Without a roadmap.
Or sometimes even a compass.

And the confidence and success experienced in my professional life

Make the self-doubts and demands of parenting that much harder.

It's hard being a grownup.

#parenting #WomenInMedicine