[Serious] Mothers and Fathers of Reddit, it's often said that once you see your child being born you immediately find deep meaningful purpose in life. Have any of you failed to have this experience or had an opposite experience? If so, what was it like? Did it affect raising your child?

YES! My time to shine. I hated being pregnant. I felt so alone since it's supposed to be a transformative experience, like you described; it helps you find your purpose blah blah blah. Well, I got pregnant just before the economic collapse of 2008, literally one month before the collapse. My husband and I weren't really ready to have a child (no house or savings) but I felt like it would be fine and we would come out the other side unscathed. NOPE. Shortly after the collapse, my husband's mom lost everything and had to come live with us and I know worse things have happened to people but my world imploded. I hated his mom. She disliked me. We did not get along. I was stressed my entire pregnancy. I hated being pregnant. I hated that I was pregnant. The entirety of what was left of my savings and the money that my parents were going to give us for our honeymoon ($10000 total) went toward the pregnancy (and taxes since they were higher than anticipated). WHAT A BUMMER. Then the baby was born and my mother in law got even more insufferable. I felt inadequate as a parent. I didn't bond very well with my baby. Not in the normal way, anyway. I got post partum depression which manifested as a paranoia that something bad would happen to him. So we weren't bonded but I was irrationally afraid that something bad would happen to him. I left him a lot with my MIL because I felt (and she had no problem encouraging this feeling) that she was a better caretaker.

But to answer your question, no it ultimately didn't affect me raising my child. Fortunately I was able to beat back the demons that surrounded the circumstances of my son's birth, and I was able to fix my emotional state. It took some work, but I did it. Currently he is the best little 6 year old that anyone could ask for and I feel like I'm a decent mom. We are close. Only time will tell if the initial damage was long-term, whether the trauma from the early part of his life will manifest in his teenage years or what. I'm optimistic though. I love being a mom now whereas I hated it before, and I think I will only love it more and more as time goes on. Of course this has made me gun shy about having another. I get annoying inquiries as to whether my son will have a little sister, but I just politely deflect. They don't know my life, so to speak. I hope that was coherent. It was date night with my husband tonight, and I"m a bit drunk.

/r/AskReddit Thread