The problem is no one is easy.

And it’s all so hard.

We hear a parent say, "my kids, none of them are easy. And my spouse, well, he's not easy either.”

Because no one is easy.

Our strong-willed ones always back-talk and are constantly testing us to see what they can get away with.

The quieter ones have their “stuff” too.

Maybe his quirks, like he doesn’t like being dirty, makes it challenging for him to be outside.

Maybe she suffers from anxiety and has trouble separating, and it's a fight every day at drop-off.

Maybe he can’t speak well yet, so he communicates in tantrums.

Because no one is easy.

And our husbands crave attention as much as our kids, but we are burnt-out, touched-out, completely done from our kids-- and can’t give as much as we used to.

And he feels it,

we know because he hints at it.

Because no one is easy.

And one day, our imperfect-yet-lovable little kids will turn into teenagers and adults with emotionally draining problems like mental illness, friend issues that could end in bullying, and it will be even harder.

Because no one is easy.

Even the easiest kids have their hard moments, but a lot of times those harder to parent qualities are what makes them special.

We know what we’ve been through to become the people we are today or, in some cases, what we're still going through.

And we know we aren’t always easy ourselves in the ordinary day-to-day.

We snap after the fifth time we say no to our kids.

We yell as we break up their fights.

We count the hours until the day is over.

We want to scream with the baby when she is crying in the car.

We sometimes scroll through our phones because we can’t deal anymore rather than play monsters with our kids.

Nothing worth having is easy

and the people in our lives are no exception.

But they are what makes life worth living.

This post originally appeared on the author's Facebook. Her book "Living FULL: Winning My Battle with Eating Disorder" is available on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2O4mJId