Child care is one of the most difficult jobs that you’ll be asked to perform in your whole life but since you have an inkling already of the amount of satisfaction and happiness you’d feel later on if you’re able to raise your kids well, you very well can’t say no to the job, can you?

As your kids advance to the stages of life one after another, the difficulty of caring for them doesn’t really differ, lessen or increase. It’s only the nature of the problems you encounter that changes.

If you’re pregnant now or just contemplating the idea of raising a family and taking care of your own child or children, here are a few things you’ll no doubt encounter as you learn about the joys and pains of child care.

Infancy – From being a relatively carefree wife who can still do almost anything you please, being a mother to an infant child has thrust you into a new life with a whole new set of responsibilities. Now, you have to wake up at ungodly hours of the night just to make sure that your baby is still sleeping peacefully, has drunk his milk and is wearing clean diapers. The frequency of your outings would also be drastically cut short because you very well wouldn’t want your children to be solely raised by a nanny, would you? And since it wouldn’t be at the baby’s interest to be always taken out at such an early age, guess who’d end up doing the sacrificing bit?

Toddler – Running after your children, making sure that they eat all the healthy food they need to grow up big and strong and persuading them to learn their lessons in school are just some of the simple tasks that have been added to your child care responsibilities. Toddlers have the tendency of getting into accidents because of their insatiable security so you have to guard them like a mother hen at all times!

Teenager – Ah, one of the most difficult stages of a child’s life, for both the child and the parents! For them, it’s a period of adjustment and confusing changes, getting rid of any signs of immaturity and preparing themselves to act as an adult. Most teenagers have the tendency to wish to grow faster and you’ll surely have both your hands full just making sure that your kids get home safely and not fall prey to vices.