Today is the United Nations’ Global Day of Parents. A day “to appreciate all parents in all parts of the world for their selfless commitment to children and their lifelong sacrifice towards nurturing this relationship” (United Nations).

To celebrate this day, here are 10 titbits that perfectly capture the struggles, sacrifices, and surprises that make parenthood something worth celebrating:

 

  1. Famous Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s kids used to tease him by playing incomplete musical scales on their piano. This forced Mozart—the musical perfectionist—to come downstairs each time to complete it. [Source]
  2. Mother’s Day is reportedly the busiest day for phone calls in America, while “Father’s Day is the busiest day for collect calls.” [Source]
  3. In 2012, a mother from Utah gave birth to her third child to be born on a Leap Day. Her first son was born on 29 February 2004, her second son on 29 February 2008, and her daughter on 29 February 2012. [Source]
  4. Dick Hoyt, a father from Massachusetts, has pushed his disabled son Rick through more than a thousand marathons, triathlons, and other racing events in his wheelchair. [Source]
  5. By a baby’s 2nd birthday, his or her parents have changed about 7300 diapers (nappies). [Source]
  6. After a Chinese woman named Yu Youzhen made one million pounds from a real estate deal, she decided to keep her job as a street sweeper—starting work at 3 a.m. every morning—just to set a good example for her children about work ethic. [Source]
  7. Octopus mothers will often starve to death protecting their eggs, refusing to leave their nests even to find food. [Source]
  8. Author A.A. Milne, who created Winnie the Pooh, based this loveable character on his son’s teddy bear, which was also named Winnie the Pooh. [Source]
  9. When it comes to seahorse parents, it is the male seahorse that gets pregnant, carries the eggs, and gives birth to the babies. [Source]
  10. In almost every culture around the world ‘ma’ is one of the first sounds a baby makes. This is why the word for ‘mother’ is so similar in different languages, such as ‘mom’ (English), ‘mamá’ (Greek), ‘mamma’ (Afrikaans,), ‘mama’ (Slovak), ‘moeder’ (Dutch), ‘maman’ (French), and ‘mãe’ (Portuguese), amongst others. [Source]

 

Starting a career as a caregiver

If you love children, and nurturing their development, then you might want to consider starting a career as an Early Childhood Development (ECD) practitioner.

Click on the button below to find out more about studying an ECD course from home via distance learning:

ECD Courses Available via Distance Learning