Founded in January 2021, the ‘Parental Humor Memes’ group has amassed over half-a-million members in just over a year. That makes one thing crystal clear: people are loving the jokes. And there’s no humor without being able to relate to it. We laugh at what’s familiar, after all.

With hundreds of new members joining every single week, the team running the group from behind the scenes insists on everybody following the rules. They’re pretty straightforward and it’s something that you’d expect to see in any major social media group.

The administrators running the page ask that members post only relevant memes. If it has nothing to do with parenting, the post won’t get approved. Sure, the meme might be great, but it might belong in another awesome group’s feed.

What’s more, members are asked to post one meme at a time and remain courteous to everyone at all times. There’s no tolerance for bullying. There’s no space for hate speech. It’s as simple as that.

Relationship expert Dan, who is a father of two, told Bored Panda about how to tell if you are ready to have kids, what parenting entails, and why it is important to love patiently.

“Billions of people have had kids when they weren’t ready and managed to figure it out. It’s not easy and does add a lot of work to your daily life when you are young, but it can be done,” he said that it is a challenge, yes, but one that many people can meet head-on.

“When you have a family unit that loves each other, you truly feel like you belong somewhere. Some people already have that feeling because they were born into a great family, but many people don’t come from a close, loving family,” he told Bored Panda that creating your family means that you have a firm support structure.

“When you have your own family, you find a place where you are loved, needed and belong. You also have an opportunity to create a loving, close family that stays together and has each other’s back for life,” Dan said.

“That is an exciting, rewarding opportunity that you simply can’t access unless you have children. That said, I wouldn’t recommend having kids just for the sake of it, or to hopefully make a relationship happier,” the relationship expert warned that having kids is a big step. You have to want to have children for the right reasons.

“The ‘bundle of joy’ they talk about in advertising campaigns is mostly just a ploy to inspire more people to have children, so they have more customers for their products,” Dan said. “In reality, a baby is more like a ‘bundle of work’ for the first couple of years because it cries a lot, which isn’t fun to listen to and it is also completely dependent on you for everything 24/7.”

Patience, in Dan’s opinion, is the key to being a good parent. “If you can love patiently and if you also have a great relationship dynamic with your woman, then you will build a loving, family unit that will then reward you with a lifetime of happy moments and precious memories,” he said.

“You can still enjoy life without having children, but you just won’t get to experience what it is like to have your own family who truly loves you, needs you, and wants you in their life,” Dan noted that becoming a parent opens up an entirely new dimension to one’s life. However, this isn't to say that someone's quality is life is 'worse' if they end up not having kids. People's definitions of who their family members are can be very different.

So, dear Pandas, which of these memes did you like the most? Which ones did you find to be the most relatable? What do you personally are the biggest challenges that parents have to face? Share your thoughts and feel free to vent about how difficult (but rewarding!) parenting is in the comments.