Musings: I never thought I’d be obsessed with poo…but then I had kids

Parenting will lead you down roads you never thought you'd go.

I'm not a squeamish person, but I've never been interested in toilet humour, gross out toys like fake poo and that Gooey Looey nose picking game can just get in the bin. I was definitely not interested in ever knowing what colour and consistency anyone else's poo was and never thought I would be....then I had my first baby and that all changed. One thing that was never mentioned to me before I had my first child was how often I'd be whipping out the poo equivalent of the Dulux colour chart at every nappy change. I also wasn't warned that I would probably end up doing nappy compare and contrasts with my other parent friends. None of this was in the parenting books, but nonetheless it all happened. Every nappy change I was pulling out my phone to Google if the colour of my baby's poo was hitting the right milestone and if not, why not? Texture and size also had to be taken into account. Basically being a new parent is like being one of the scientists in an episode of CSI but without all the quippy one liners and cool labs. You'll be doing your investigating solely from your changing table. The only comfort in all of the poo mania was that I knew I was very much not alone. Parenting forum after parenting forum I would see questions arise from parents concerned about their child's poo and if it was normal. I know generally speaking, our number twos can be an indicator of our health or tip us off that something is wrong with us, but aside from a doctor asking for a stool sample, it just doesn't come up as much. I can't ever remember a time that my friend told me that they were under the weather and I asked them what their poo looked like. But yet as a new parent the poo chart was burned into my brain and the solution to most health concerns I had about my baby. If you haven't had a baby yet, just wait it is all ahead of you. If you're already a parent then you know, oh you know.