You can read all the books you like before having your first baby, but within a few weeks, you'll realise that the information within was just the tip of the parental iceberg.

Until you have a sleepless newborn, a six year old refusing to eat anything but pizza, or a teenager who needs more sleep than a hibernating hamster, you haven't understood tiredness, frustration or extreme happiness and pride.

Here is our round-up of the top ten things every parent wishes they had known - in advance!

Most babies refuse to sleep more than a few hours without issuing noisy demands. Toddlers also prefer being awake to being asleep, and after that stage is passed, children like to stay awake reading with a torch til way too late.

You aren't the only person to influence your kids

Much as you nurture and love them, and show it every day, kids are individuals, and you cannot control their emotions or how others affect them.

You will never be alone again

Whether you're trying to have a bath with a toddler peering over the edge, or waiting for your 15 year old to ask for a lift home from a party, they are always with you. In some ways this is glorious. In others….well, let's just say that if you're offered a spa break, take it.

They learn at their own speed

You cannot force children to walk, talk or - later - read and write. Everything happens at their own pace.

You have to remember impossible amounts of information

When you are in charge of one or more small people, you're expected to remember all sorts of stuff, from doctor's appointments to homework, vaccinations and their friends' birthdays.  Add in chronic sleep deprivation, and it's almost inevitable you will forget things, whether it's the timings of events, to collect old shoe boxes for school projects, or even whole sentences.

They aren't your new best friends

If you're looking for company, join a book club. You can have fun with them, but you're there to help them become decent adults and keep them on the straight and narrow.

Kids always need feeding

It's not just the producing of three meals a day, it's working out how many they need, and whether there's a good mix of protein, carbohydrates, fat, and fruit and veg (and the odd treat!).

You'll know the school holidays are over because you can go to the loo without flushing it first.

Children are chaotic and messy. If you leave a room looking tidy, the superpower of anyone aged from eight months to 18 years is the ability to trash it within five minutes.

Children can be - whisper it - a bit boring

You think that being in an office is tedious? None of your colleagues make you play Snakes and Ladders fifty times in a row.

-Dailymail