Does anyone feel like parenting is actually easier than they expected?

I know there are lots of people that find it way harder than expected and are really struggling. I don't mean to make those people feel bad or guilty or inadequate, but I'd like to hear about those that might be on the other side of it, and specifically, what your relationship to your kids is like? Maybe there's something we can learn from each other.When my wife got pregnant, it was planned and I was on board, but in some ways I wasn't looking forward to it. And the first two years really are kinda rough, with all of the work you have to do to keep a kid alive (and keep them from killing themselves). But the next 3 years since, it's been great with my daughter. Life has been hard enough otherwise (my wife died of cancer almost two years ago), but having a kid has had very few downsides.I'm fairly lucky as far as single parents go: one set of grandparents is nearby and love to have her for frequent, short term visits; the others are about an hour away but love to take her for a few days sometimes, so I get breaks; and my friends are pretty kid-friendly (two are married with a baby, the others work at a daycare).My time with my kid is 95% positive. She's happy, bright, curious, playful, all the things a 5 year old should be. Other kids tend to like her and want to play well with her, and adults seem to generally like her as well. We do lots of stuff together that we both enjoy. We read a lot, I'm teaching her to read (that's been one of the most rewarding things we've ever done together), we go for walks, we explore, we run errands together, we take care of the house together, I teach her millions of little mundane things about how the world works. I can take her to restaurants and coffee shops and really enjoy our time there.She's well-behaved enough that it's easy to take her most places with adults so I don't often feel trapped by her or like I'm missing out on the world. I'm going camping with some friends in a few weeks and she'll be coming too, and I don't anticipate any major problems. I do struggle with having to stay in at home every night because she goes to bed at 8, but I can deal. And it's not all the time. I'm sending her to my parents for tonight so I can have supper with a friend that's moving away soon.It's hard to say what I've done, or how much effect any of it's had, to get to this point. One thing I've done that I think is very important is never lie to her. I don't necessarily tell her everything she wants to know, but I won't lie. No white lies, no empty promises, no empty threats. She can trust me pretty well when I tell her seriously not to do something, and she listens fairly well when she knows there will be consequences. It makes life pretty easy for both of us.Another thing I've done, partly by necessity but I always planned on it, is to include her in as many normal, grownup things as possible. She goes with me to the bank, to buy insurance, to do laundry, wash dishes, clean the car, any household stuff. There's usually something for her to do or learn and she likes feeling included. I don't try very hard to make sure she always has some kid-appropriate thing to do. If she has to, she does a pretty good job of finding ways to live happily and safely in the real world. And that's important to me, since the main job of parenting seems to be to prepare my kid to be a good adult. I want her to be competent and courageous, because the world is difficult and scary sometimes.There are lots of things I do, but those are probably the two that I think have had the best impact on her (and by extension, me). People that aren't drowning in family life, what's it like for you and how do you do it? via /r/Parenting https://ift.tt/2NeU48c