Tantrums and rice cakes: 8 ways you know you’re a mum to a toddler

Brought to you by ToddleBox.ie.

You've battled through that first year and emerged on the other side happy, full of love... and completely exhausted. 

Toddlers: utterly adorable, not to mention bucketloads of fun. Parenting one also involves an abnormally high tolerance for tantrums, bodily fluids, and cartoon pigs. So here at HerFamily, we've identified the most common things that parents of toddlers go through. And for nutritional advice and recipes, as well as expert insight into sleep and behaviour - look at ToddleBox; a fantastic resource for mums and dads of one- to three-year-olds. After all, You Only Toddle Once #YOTO. 1. Your handbag contains your wallet along with: a packet of baby wipes; a couple of crushed rice cakes; a pair of socks covered in crushed rice cakes; a packet of something for emergency bribery; that crumpled, stained letter you meant to post three weeks ago. 2. Your world is very loud and very messy all the time. Toddlers may look cute - but they can create destruction and carnage in moments. 3. Think the newborn phase was tough on your sleeping schedule? There are loads of mums and dads who'd argue that toddlerhood is even tougher... not least because some little ones have now worked out how to climb out of their cot. 4. You no longer have any issue with being one of those parents who sticks episodes of Peppa Pig on on loop at the weekends. 5. Car journeys of longer than 20 minutes require toys, books, iPads and enough snacks to feed a herd of toddler elephants for a week. 6. Speaking of eating - you yourself have to do so in secret. Because if toddlers hear you trying to snack or munch, they will want whatever it is you're snacking or munching on. 7. You make excuses not to jump on the trampoline with your kids because “mama might wet herself,” isn't necessarily the right example to set your just-toilet-trained toddler. 8. You carry with you at all times spare everything: five packets of wipes, four leggings, an extra pair of shoes, three pairs of socks, a jumper, three t-shirts, and 107 pairs of underpants (see toilet-training, above). Toddler platform, Toddlebox, is a wealth of information and guidance for parents of one- to three-year-olds. After all, You Only Toddle Once #YOTO.