Small children... The new college?

A friend of mine and I were talking the other day about how she ate grilled cheese, yogurt, and fruit for the first few years of her kids lives. I made a joke that having small kids is like going to college, but is this true? One- you are awake at all hours of the night. College was to hang with friends. Parenthood to hang with sick kids. Two- eating the same food every night and at weird times. College might have been cereal. For me it was a bagel with cream cheese. And parenthood is very similar. Pretty much whatever can be eaten with one hand while standing and holding a baby in the other hand. Three- learning about gender roles. College was taking my first women studies class, learning about myself and what it meant to be a woman. Parenthood was figuring out breast feeding and that ideas all on my own during the day. Women's roles in the home. The importance of fathers in the whole process. Four- thinking each stage will last forever. College was the best time and it felt like it was going to be a long time. Although I felt like it went way faster than high school. Parenthood definitely has it spurts and stops. Rig now we are in the thick of toddlerdom. And I'm juiced for the future when big guy and I can go the pool and I'm not chasing him. And he's talking so much recently. Busting out with all kinds of sentences when I least expect them. And I know at some point he'll talk so much that I'll look at hubs and reminisce about when he didn't talk! Five- there is a lot of studying. College was a lot of learning that wasn't really put into real life practice. Before becoming a parent, there is a lot of prep work to, but until you are living it, (kind of like that first internship out of college) you don't really know what you are talking about. Sure, I'll definitely do sleep training, just like how easy it is to balance the national budget! So- which is better? Well- big guy will be my greatest accomplishment.