Always One Step Behind: The Ever-Changing Pace of Parenthood

Talaya Murphy
Sep 8
2 min read

Parenthood in the first year feels like running a race where your competitor is always faster and that competitor just so happens to be the tiny human you created. Just when you think you’ve caught up, your baby changes the pace, the course, and the finish line all at once.

Take naps, for example. You finally figure out the perfect nap schedule, and for a few days, everything feels predictable. Then out of nowhere? That same schedule no longer works. Straight out the window. Suddenly naps are shorter, harder to come by, or maybe gone altogether.

You’re back at square one, chasing after a baby who’s already sprinting ahead to the next stage. And don’t get me started on overtiredness when it’s so avoidable if they would just.

Close. Their. Eyes.

Bedtime routines? Same story. One week, bath–book–bottle–bed works like magic, and you feel like you’ve cracked the code. The next, your child has decided that routine is outdated and in desperate need of an overhaul.

It’s basically the parenting version of your company switching systems and forcing everyone into new training sessions. You adapt, or at least, try to because that’s what parents do.

(cough cough have to do!)

And then there’s food. I’m not fully in that stage yet, but I know it’s coming. Right now, sweet potato fries are my daughter’s holy grail. She lives for them. But I’m bracing myself for the day when sweet potato fries are suddenly unacceptable, and regular fries become the only answer. Of course, give it a week and those will probably be on the chopping block too.

It’s humbling, really. Just when you feel like you’ve mastered one part of parenthood, your kid moves the goalposts and heads for the next first down (in honor of football season ). They grow, they change, they evolve...faster than you can prepare for. And you’re left adjusting, pivoting, and learning all over again.

That’s the beauty of it, I guess. It feels like one of those compliance trainings you’re forced to do every year—except in parenting, it’s every single day. But the truth is, parenthood isn’t about winning the race or catching up perfectly.

It’s about running alongside your child, even when you’re a little winded. It’s about embracing the changes, the pivots, and the unpredictability. Because every shift, every nap dropped, every food rejected, every bedtime meltdown is proof that your child is growing.