13 Reasons Why Being a Parent in Winter is Anything but Wonderful
Parenting during winter. Ah, yes, the season of cozy hats and hot chocolate with marshmallows, along with crackling fires and kids in cute flannel pajamas. Instagram has a version of this. What’s the reality? It’s cold. It’s wet. You’re tired. You’re tired.
Winter may look beautiful on a Christmas card, but in real life, it’s a different story. It is usually a brownish grey color due to the constant mud that gets tracked into the house.
Take a look at winter parenting from a more realistic perspective. It’s not a “holiday movie” montage, but merely surviving the season. Here are 13 reasons that this season will not be a wonderful one for parents.
1. The Great Laundry Avalanche
The laundry basket is one of the sneakiest ways that winter can attack. Winter arrives, and you think that you are doing a good job of keeping up with the laundry pile.
Everyone in your home suddenly wears three layers of clothing all the time. Triple the socks, triple shirts, and triple pants are required after just one playground visit.
Let’s also not forget about the coats, scarves and gloves, thermal leggings, gloves, and blankets. Electricity bills are soaring, the dryer is running nonstop, and you start to wonder if wearing the same hoodie six days in a row is that bad.
Spoiler Alert: It’s Not.
2. Bare feet + Cold Tiles + Night Feeds = Misery
You know how terrifying night feedings can be if you have ever been a parent of a baby during winter. The room is frozen. You are barely awake. You’re barely awake.
You’d rather walk on Lego at 3 am than barefoot on a cold tile.
It’s not cute or cozy to drag yourself out of bed several times a day, only to be met with Siberian temperatures or a screaming baby. While trying not to wake the rest of your household. It was a good time.
3. The Tissue Paper Plague
Winter and runny noses go together like tantrums and toddlers. You’ll soon find that tissues are a major part of your home decor if you have young children. You’ll find tissues in your pockets, under the couch cushions, between car seats, and in toy boxes. They will also be stuck to your dog.
Most of the time, your children won’t use it at all. They’ll simply let the snot stylishly flow down their face.
Your living room may look like a haunted home with cobwebs made of tissue paper at some point. You won’t even notice. The guests will. You won’t.
4. School Pickup During the Slushstorm
Winter school runs can be a great way to build character. The carefree summer days of sunnies and breezy rides are gone. You’re now dealing with mud and sideways rain.
These downpours always come at the perfect time. The downpours usually arrive just after you exit the car, or worse, as soon as you have managed to wiggle your double stroller in a muddy puddle.
Umbrellas flip inside out. The baby is crying. Your socks are soaked. Your socks are wet.
5. Last-Minute Bladder Emergency and Layered Children
You’ve done it. Finally, you’ve managed to get your kids into their winter clothing. You’ll find thermals, hoodies, and jackets as well as hats, scarves, and boots.
Just as you are about to zip up your final jacket, there is a little voice:
“Mum, you have to pee.”
Every. Single. Time.
It is impossible to measure your patience and your ability to remove clothing quickly than if you have a child who has to go to the bathroom the moment after you finish dressing him.
6. Toilet Training in Twelve Layers
Toilet training during winter? It’s a bad idea. An essential bad thing for man, but still painful.
Let’s break this down. You are trying to get a toddler who has the attention span and focus of a goldfish, to understand the signs that they have to go to the bathroom, to communicate these signals clearly, to hold still long enough to allow you to remove the 45 layers of clothing, before you can help them to the toilet.
Oh, it’s also cold. They’re probably distracted from the sticker chart with frozen themes.
Accidents happen. Multiple outfit changes? It’s inevitable. You will start to wonder if pull-ups are a bad thing. (They’re not.)
7. Adult Onesies – The Illusion Dies Fast
When temperatures plummet, even grown-ups start getting desperate for warmth. What’s cosier than a warm fleece onesie, you ask?
Let’s face it: adult onesies do not look flattering. Most of them are like a Care Bear and Teletubby merged. You’ll want to avoid mirrors, and you’ll hope that the doorbell does not ring.
How about trying to use the toilet in a onesie? We’ll just say that dignity is put on the back burner when you’re half-naked and shivering in a 2 a.m. bathroom.
8. Boob Frost – A Real Threat
You can experience what we call boob frost when you are breastfeeding in the winter.
This is not glamorous. Your baby wakes up in the middle of the night, when you’re finally warm and cozy. It’s a delicate balance to keep your baby warm enough for them to feed, but not so much that they freeze. This is not possible. You are now half-frozen and half-covered in snow, wondering what has brought you to this point.
It’s worse to try to breastfeed in freezing temperatures in a car or the parking lot of a shopping center because your baby won’t wait.
9. The Car Heater War
Warm up your car before you go anywhere during winter.
If you skip this step, be prepared to hear a chorus from the backseat:
“Mum, it’s freezing!”
“Mum, my breath is visible!”
“Muuuum! Turn on the heater NOW!”
Your fingers start to go numb as you turn the wheel. The windows become fogged beyond recognition, and your child is hysterical because their glove fell off. Everyone is too warm somewhere between reversing from the driveway to your destination. Jackets are removed. Arguments begin. You still haven’t gotten to the grocery store, and your heater is “too noisy.”
10. The Wet Sock Crisis
The winter season is full of dangers.
- Coffee running out?
- Catching the stomach bug in your child
- Wet socks
The absolute worst are wet socks. These socks are cold, squishy, and can be soul-destroying. They’re everywhere during winter. Wet socks can be a nightmare, whether it’s from snow getting into your boots or stepping on a mysterious puddle in the kitchen.
Worse? What could be worse? Listening to your kid scream for 20 minutes about his wet socks while refusing to remove them.
11. Wardrobe Negotiations with Tiny Tyrants
Every morning in winter becomes a diplomatic mission. You suggest jeans and thick socks. Also, you recommend a coat, a long-sleeved shirt, thick socks, and boots. Your child wants shorts with a tank top and glittery Crocs.
They insist, shivering, “But I am not cold!”
Some mornings you argue. Some mornings, you just give up. You let them out occasionally in their underwear to learn by experience. They don’t. Five minutes later, they are crying, cold, and blaming YOU for not letting them have what they wanted.
12. Icicle Toes: Your New Alarm Clock
The lazy Sunday morning sleep-ins are over. You wake up in winter not to birdsong, nor the smell of coffee. Instead, you feel the sudden stabbing cold as tiny toes press against your neck, face, or back.
There’s nothing that says “wake-up!” like a child who climbs into bed at the same temperature as a snowman. They are wriggly and loud and desperate for warmth, which they steal from you while you lie there with your teeth chattering, wondering why your duvet doesn’t fit two.
13. Frozen Fever Is Real
You would think that your children would prefer to watch something tropical and warm in the winter. Nope. They want Elsa. They want Elsa. Again. Again. And again.
Let It Go echoes throughout your home on loop. Snowflakes fall on the screen as real ones do outside. While your toddler sings every word like it’s the Broadway premiere, you wonder if Disney+ offers a feature to block out the temperature.
Now that they understand what it is to be surrounded by snow, they want to go *
live* it.
Conclusion
Winter parenting is more than just the weather. It’s also a complete transformation in routines, laundry, and emotional resilience. There are magical moments: seeing your child’s eyes light up as they see their first snowflake; snuggling with cocoa under a blanket, or making a snowman. Most often, however, you’ll find muddy boots and nsnotty-sleeved children, as well as the smell of damp, woolen clothing.
The winter season may not be the favorite of parents, but it is one of their most memorable. Remember that Spring is coming, even if you are knee-deep in snow and having sibling fights while reheating your fourth cup.
Eventually.
Until then, keep your socks dry by layering up and stockpiling tissues.
