Being a parent is a tough job. Although the majority of parents say that having kids is enjoyable and incredibly rewarding most of the time, they also admit that it can be a lot. In fact, 41% say it's tiring, and 29% find it stressful all or most of the time.
Your life changes immensely after becoming a parent, and "Got Toddlered" is the Instagram page that documents that change perfectly. Here we have a compilation of the best before-and-after pictures of what "getting toddlered" does to a person that we've covered throughout many years here on Bored Panda. Life comes at you fast, but kids can tackle you even faster.
More info: Instagram (Got Toddlered) | Instagram (Dad and Buried) | Facebook | Twitter | Podcast | Patreon
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The "Got Toddlered" Instagram is for parents with kids of all ages. "Don't worry, they don't have to be toddlers," the page's bio reads. "They destroy, regardless of age." The creator of the page is Mike Julianelle, a father of two from Brooklyn. "Got Toddlered" is only one of Mike's projects about parenting.
There's the "Dad And Buried" blog and social media pages as well, where Mike shares funny stories from his life as a dad to two boys. In April 2024, Mike wrote a book, titled "Dad Truths." On his many platforms, Mike presents a nuanced role of being a dad: sometimes it's wonderful, sometimes it sucks, but mostly it's just exhausting.
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If you start thinking "Whew, I'm so glad I don't have kids" while scrolling through this list, you might not be getting the message that Mike is trying to convey. Mike's motto is "Kids are great. Parenting sucks." Back in 2019, Mike told Bored Panda that he doesn't regret having his two sons.
"Look, I don’t hate my kids, I just hate parenting," he jokes with us back then. "Parenting is challenging and frustrating and expensive and exhausting and stressful and boring, and while my sons are often all of those things as well, I don't regret having them. How dare you suggest such a thing just because I occasionally make jokes and memes that make it seem that way!"
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Mostly, it's just Mike's way of dealing with the crazy demanding role that is being a parent. "I mock and troll my kids, and I trash and ridicule parents and parenting, and myself, because that's my sense of humor, and my sense of humor is what keeps me sane amidst the all-consuming hellscape of attempting to protect and raise ignorant, unformed, self-destructive miniature human beings," Julianelle told Bored Panda in 2019.
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Julianelle started the blog "Dad and Buried" even before his first son was born. "I've always been a writer, and I've always written in a sarcastic and cynical style, about my life and pop culture," he told Thread MB. "When I was preparing to be a parent, the topic lent itself perfectly to my tone and voice." So, in 2013, Mike focused on his stay-at-home dad experience and started writing about that.
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Mike's goal with the blog (and the following social media pages) was to portray parenting without sugarcoating it. "I was sick of seeing all the rose-colored takes on parenting because I knew they were BS and I wanted to be more honest," he explained his reasoning behind starting the blog.
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"I was sick of seeing my friends have their lives and personalities subsumed by their role as parents, and I wanted to prove that you could remain who you are even when you had kids," Julianelle added. He says that his blog portrays parenting with "warts and all" where there's no judgment for parents. Maybe just some gentle mocking of the kids.
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Although Mike may seem like a jokester online, he also has some good parenting advice. He shares some of it in his book "Dad Truths," but has given his view on parenting to the New York Family as well. According to Mike, the most important and hardest thing in parenting is consistency.
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"No one knows what they're doing, and we all do it differently, but so long as the way you do it is the way you always do it, you're probably in good shape," he told the New York publication. "Kids need structure, they need to know what to expect, and if you can establish a reliable pattern—whether it's how you discipline or the bedtime routine or setting limits on screen-time or bringing them back to their bed when they try to co-sleep in the middle of the night—it will go a long way toward making your life easier."
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All in all, "Got Toddlered" and "Dad and Buried" are safe spaces for parents who sometimes might feel that parenting is too much. "Kids are the worst best thing that's ever happened to us," Julianelle told HuffPost in 2017. "If we don't laugh about the havoc they wreak we'd have to cry instead and I'm not a crier."
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What about you, Panda parents? Have you got any before-and-after pics of what "getting toddlered" did to you and your face? Show us the consequences of your toddlers in the comments! And, in the meantime, don't forget to check out our previous posts about the "Got Toddlered" page here, here, here, and here!
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