Guys I think I’m entering into the second level of motherhood.

All my people sleep in their own rooms, ok well that isn’t entirely true, but all of my people are capable of sleeping in their own rooms.

Everyone uses the toilet. We’re done with bottles, pacifiers, and to be honest we’re basically done with strollers.

We can go on a day trip with nothing but the clothes we’re wearing, a tank of gas, and a credit card. I mean let’s not get crazy I always have “emergency pants” in the car, but we’re done packing the kitchen sink so we can leave for 4 hours.

It’s amazing.

No seriously, the end of diapers was… well just as life changing as when we had the first kid and started changing diapers around the clock. Y’all Harry Potter went through 17 diapers in one day during his first week of life… diapers have consumed the last 8 years of my life. Ok maybe that was an exaggeration, but skipping that aisle at Costco was pretty amazing.

So I’m moving into the second level of motherhood and I have to say it’s just as confusing as level 1!

Level 1 was filled with potty training, sleep training, breastfeeding (heaven help me), diapers, and screaming, but Level 2 is filled with… well confusion.

Do you know what level 2 kids have? LOTS of feelings… like all the feelings, all the time.

Since I have three kids, it’s an emotional roller coaster over here. Someone is always sad, angry, over the moon, exhausted, bouncing off the walls with joy, etc. I had no idea three people could have so many feelings in 12 hours. It’s a short time to have all the feelings.

Mr. Spreadsheets comes home from work and tries to talk to me and I stare at him blankly, the after school emotions zap all my remaining brain cells and I cannot for the life of me understand him speaking about adult things in a normal volume. Now if he were to scream about spreadsheets and run around in circles, I might understand a bit better.

Anyway level 2 parenting is rough people.

Not only do these kids have the full range of human emotions, but they’re starting to slowly stumble into actual issues. This school year we’ve talked about bullying, divorce, drugs, adoption, poverty, etc, we’ve been in school a month! I did not worry about any of these issues when I was a level 1 parent!

We are starting things like homework (seriously this is invented by people that hate parents), sports with winners and losers, and the pretween attitude.

I’m starting to worry (legitimately worry)  about whether or not we are teaching our kids the right things and if they’re going to grow up and be contributing members of society firmly grounded in moral principles, or am I basically raising a generation of basement dwellers. People this is what you start worrying about as a level 2 parent! This is a legitimate concern, they cannot live in my basement in 20 years… I don’t have a basement so that’s the first issue. There’s no more “Can little Sally actually climb the slide by herself?” No! Now I’m worrying if my incredibly disobedient and rebellious 5 year old is actually a psychopath destined for prison… for real.

But despite these worries and my obvious inadequacies as a parent, there are also some really cool things about this phase of parenting. We’re having conversations about more substantive issues than Thomas the Train, eating better food (well not if my second child has anything to do with it), and starting to enjoy our kids as people rather than as screaming moochers (yes you read that correctly). It turns out when they aren’t screaming, throwing things, or running like maniacs, they are fun! And from the glimpses I’m starting to see, these might be people I want to be friends with in 20 years.

I’m pretty nervous to continue heading down this path, it’s like walking into a dark room in the middle of the night. I’m debating whether or not it’s worth it, moving slowly and carefully, and seriously considering running in the opposite direction, but I’m making progress one day at a time.