Mum gets real about the “tediousness” of keeping kids entertained

"Now my days are spent in a field going 'one, two, three gooo' as we go up and down a hill on a tractor."

We all know that life changes when you have kids. Suddenly, a life that was once yours belongs to them. We know that, of course. But were any of us really aware of the extent to which that is true? As in, how you literally cannot do anything, from work to R&R, without ensuring your child's most basic but also entertainment needs are met? One honest mother on TikTok has shared an all-too-real video talking about this realisation. In a series of videos labelled 'Things I wish I knew about having kids before I had kids,' TikTok user @staceygreenliving speaks about how "tedious" she finds the daily aspects of parenthood. The Canadian mum shared a few things her followers should consider if they're on the fence about having children. In her first video on the topic she says: "You have to do things with them, like ALL the time. Like, fill the day with things for them to do. "Before my Saturday would have been maybe hanging out with my friends Mary and Jane, and watching TV. Or going to a cottage. "Now my days are spent in a field going 'one, two, three gooo' as we go up and down a hill on a tractor. Like I knew it, but I didn't understand the tediousness of it all."

@staceygreenlivingNobody told me. ##momsoftiktok ##kids ##parentsoftiktok ##canadianmom ♬ original sound - Stacey Green

We're sure many parents whose Netflix recommendations have been infiltrated by Cocomelon or whose living room has involuntarily become a playroom would agree. That first video has amassed over 4.5 million views on the platform and was naturally met with mixed reactions. Though there were some critics, the comment section was also filled with plenty of agreement from other parents. "My favourite realisation was that once you become a parent fun and relaxation are no longer free - I have to pay someone to watch them," one person wrote. "You forgot to add that they wont appreciate any of it and will 100% always be bored," added another. Stacey, who now has over 82.8K followers on the platform, made a follow-up video addressing the criticism. "Everybody is gonna have an opinion about how you're raising your kids. EVERYBODY," she said. "...People saying 'umm, I can't believe she would do it like this' or that's not how I do it.' OK, don't do it like that. Who said you had to? "That's the beautiful part about this. Those are your babies, this is your family. Everybody else can shove it." Hear, hear.