5 things new mums want dads to know but don't know how to tell them.

It’s a wonderful, messy, difficult, joyous time. But when you bring home a new baby, it can cause waves you didn’t see coming. Here’s what mums need to tell dads about the first months of parenthood.

When a couple become ‘mum and dad’, life as they know it changes forever. Parenthood begins, along with many lessons, joys, frustrations, feelings and emotions. Some of these more difficult feelings and emotions can be hard for a new mother to vocalise – usually because she feels silly, thinking its something she should just cope with (especially when no-one else talks about it) or because all she really knows is that she doesn’t feel good about something. She can’t quite put her finger on why she feels that way – especially when she never imagined motherhood would bring up such complicated and conflicting emotions.

Here are 5 important things dads need to know as written for bellybelly.com.au:

1. We're faking it. Our new mother self-esteem can be a fragile thing, our confidence just a veneer. This is partly because we have been bombarded with perfect (and so now we’re realising unrealistic) images of motherhood on the screen and in the pages of magazines. This makes our expectations of ourselves, and maybe your expectations of us, impossible to live up to. For most of us, it's a case of ‘fake it till you make it’. But then there is no yardstick for ‘successful parenting’, no measure of performance like salary raises or work bonuses.

Nobody gives a bottle of champagne for superior nappy changing. Where we may have looked to bosses, co-workers or friends to feel good about ourselves before the baby came, now, it’s pretty much only you. We want your acknowledgement, appreciation and encouragement. You also might have to let us know that you want the same from us.

2. We don't mean to be a witch. Some of us bought into the myth that motherhood would be instinctive, and some things may be, but other things are also a steep learning curve – and that can cause us performance anxiety. Some things we thought would come naturally are taking longer than expected.

And sometimes the responsibilities of looking after our little person can be stressful. That’s why we’re snappy some times. Please be patient with us and ask us to be patient with you, join in  our learning and share the responsibility so it’s not just on our shoulders.

3. We don't want to have sex. But we will. Really. We’ve been covered in sticky body fluids all day, we’re ‘touched out’ from an overdose of skin contact and being clutched, pulled and scratched (those little fingernails can hurt!) and after a long day of feeling like we’re giving out, giving out, giving out, sex can feel like more giving out and an unreasonable demand on an exhausted body. What we really, really, need is some “getting” to get some sense of balance back.

We need no-strings-attached affection, we need your arms around us so we can relax into your strength, a bath run or some vacuuming done. We need to know you care and love us and still think we’re beautiful even if we’ve got baby spit caked in our hair. Keep gifting us this and we will feel like giving back and eventually when we’re not giving out so much we will remember that sex means getting too. Resentment is a contraceptive, but gratefulness is a great aphrodisiac.

Other mothers don’t admit it, although we’re starting to suspect that most of them feel like this too and it would be great if we could all just relax and talk about it. We might make some new friends that way. All this means we sometimes hold a lot of stuff inside, it sits there bubbling and churning like lava in a volcano – and because you’re the one around most, you get it when we burst.

5. This is the new normal. We expected that life would get back to normal, but it’s starting to dawn on us that it never will. We expected to feel more in control, but we’re working out it’s the baby that’s going to be calling the shots for a while. Some days we feel a bit caged. On these days we can feel envious that your life hasn’t changed as much ours.

We know this isn’t your fault, but we don’t know what to do about it. On those days we might be snappy as soon as you walk through the door looking fabulous in your still-clean suit. Please understand that this is not personal, although it must feel like it is. It’s just such a big adjustment for us – life after baby can be very different to life before – and every day and for the next 18 years has now become real. We also need to have regular ‘time out’ too so we feel like ourselves again. We need and appreciate your support so we can do this.

These things can be hard to put into words and they take some getting used to. But we want to share it – all of it – with you. We want you to walk alongside us, hold our hand, and put your arm around us, as we create the new – and maybe even better – normal for our family.

Originally published on bellybelly.com.au. Reappears here with full permission. 

Would you add anything to this list?

And just because we can, click through this gallery of super sexy celebrity dads: