What You Wish You had Known As A New Dad

Being a dad for the first time is daunting, no matter how much you say or think you're ready for a child. I have two children, needless to say having children changes your life for the better. Yes, definitely for the better.

Do I wish I'd known more things before having kids? Of course! It would have never changed my decision to have kids but knowledge is power as they say. I would have loved to have had a heads up on:

The POO!

Oh, the poo! So. Much. Poo! It's also not just the normal colours you expect from your number twos. I don't think you're a true parent until you've said the words, "Its luminous green!". Once you've said these words, you then stare at the poo thinking "how can this be right?". Why didn't someone warn me about this?

I've spent more time staring at turds then I'd like to.

Social Life.

What social life? I used to be a social butterfly, now I'm more of a social woodlouse. You won't go out as much as you used to, that includes out drinking with mates, out to restaurants etc. You'll simply be too tired to want to do most of these things, at least for the first few years. 

I think every parent does need to find time to do this though, even if it is just once a month. Spend time alone with your partner, go out with friends. Just do something without the kids so that you feel normal again. This is one thing that my wife and I need to do more of. We never go out together, our kids have never stayed out overnight. Actually, I lie. Sometimes we go to Asda together without the kids. That's not really the same though.

Peppa Sodding Pig.

By the time your child is about two and a half, be prepared to have watched Peppa Pig 1,786,653 times. You'll end up knowing most of the words to each episode. If you're lucky, you'll get to break it up with episodes of Ben and Hollys Little Kingdom and Paw Patrol, both of which are watchable. Miss Rabbit will also make you feel bad for complaining about how much you have to do. I won't tell you why, because you'll be watching it soon enough anyway.

World War 3

Everything is a fight between my two kids. You'll find yourself saying "stop arguing" about 86 times a day. Who'd have thought you could argue over grass, or a wooden spoon or even a dust cloth?

Time For Yourself.

Being a busy parent leaves little time for yourself and any fashion sense you might have had before the little bundles of joy came along. You'll swap branded clothing for Primani specials, Jeans will be replaced by jog pants and spending money on hair, facial products and shaving apparatus will be the last thing you think about. 

Having children shouldn't mean that you let everything go, it is hard at first but you soon get used to it. The Mrs and I spend about an hour in the bath most nights (not together, obvs). This is our "Me time". We can relax on our own for a bit. We obviously wait until the kids are asleep otherwise you can hear them arguing about dusting the grass or whatever ridiculous thing has popped into their heads at the time. 

I'll generally watch YouTube or read a book. I'll also take this time to have a shave when needed. I only shave about once a month and the one thing I hate the most about it is shopping for a new razor or the blades to go with it. This is mainly due to the extortionate prices shops now charge. I recently came across the BIC Shave Club. The shave club is a subscription service which you can pay monthly or every other month, meaning, no more forgetting to buy razors or blades when you go shopping like I do. They get delivered straight to your door.

BIC Shave Club offers a high quality, time-saving solution for busy dads. Spot on I thought. I gave it a try.

I was impressed with the razor, it had a good weight to it. It came with a five-blade razor which also had a precision strip for the more sensitive areas of your face. It also came with a shaving guide (in case you're new to this).

I took the razor for a test drive. The blade was easy to attach and after I had shaving gelled myself up I was ready to go. I can honestly say this was the quickest and easiest shave ever. The hairs came straight off the blade when rinsing and I hadn't managed to hack my face off like I generally do when I buy cheaper razors. I was impressed with this. More so after a few days, I usually get quite a bad shaving rash on my neck, whilst this didn't completely go away, it was considerably better than normal. Another plus for BIC Shave Club. 

There is nothing like the feeling of a shave after using a good quality razor. This is what BIC are offering. I will definitely be signing up to receive them monthly. 

This is now one thing less to think about. If only I can now get Peppa Pig taken off the air.

What things do you wish you had known before you had your kids? Let me know in the comments. Do you have a date night with your partner? Where do you generally go? I'd love to hear about it.

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For this post, I received the razor and blade from BIC. All opinions are completely my own.