Before I had kids, I admittedly had my own preconceived opinions about what people with kids did and why they did them and, well, those things usually annoyed me. Now that I've got kids of my own? Well, now I'm struggling to be a good parent and a good friend and a good partner, while also trying not to roll my eyes at the person I used to be. I've realized that there are things people without kids find annoying about parents that really shouldn't be annoying to anyone at all because, well, parenthood comes with a list of obligations that you can't navigate around.
It's no secret that having a baby will change your social life, but all the ways in which it changes your social life can be surprising. I expected to still maintain somewhat of a social life after having kids, especially when my partner and I were able to get help (and when that happened, I did) but being out of the house sans kids and with my friends turned out to be a different experience than the one I imagined. Suddenly, I became the person who couldn't spend five minutes not thinking about her kids. I became the person texting the sitter every 30 minutes. I became the person who stared at pictures of her baby while my friends were having actual conversations, and I was the person who kept bringing up my kids in conversations that had nothing to do with them.
How different a night out was after having kids (hell, how different I was after having kids) threw me for a loop. I never thought that I would become that person that used to annoy me to no end but since becoming that person, I've got to say, there are very valid reasons for the many "annoying" things that us parents say and do. So, with that in mind, let me just take a minute to justify the following ten things that people without kids find annoying about parents, and explain why you should still love us anyway.