Newspaper Article

Rush, rush, rush Despite crises, parenthood is worth it, survey finds

Lacey, Carol

1989

Overview

Bringing up baby is tougher than you'd ever imagine. But the love and excitement of being a new parent can shine through even the most persistent siege of sleepless nights, harried schedules and messy diapers. The diaper company's non-scientific survey's statistical findings about the joys and stresses of parenthood are hardly startling, but it's the touching nature of the written responses that makes the 28-page report such fascinating reading. The number of written comments took the diaper service by surprise, officials said, noting that the big response means the survey touched on a subject triggering strong feelings. Less than 1 in 10 said that being a parent has turned out to be easier than they had expected. The rest were nearly evenly split: About half thought being a parent was tougher, and about half found parenthood to be about what they expected. However, even parents who seemed to know what they were getting themselves into admitted that coping with the physical and emotional reality of becoming parents was tougher than they could ever have imagined.

• Publisher: Tribune Publishing Company, LLC