What did you find harder? Parenting a toddler, or parenting a teen?

[Toooldhmm]

Just that really!

Not sure what the teen years will be like. But the twos and threes (while lovely) have been one big emotional rollercoaster! Lack of sleep, lots of tantrums, and so on

Definitely the teen years. Some of the posts on here resonate with me. You can't "fix" things for teenagers that you can with toddlers.

When I read posts from parents of very young children deciding whether to have another child I always advise them to look ahead to the pitfalls of parenting several teenagers.

Definitely the teen years !

I've got a toddler and a teen and it's quite similar!!

But I personally find the age 3 the absolute worst.

They are both hard in different ways - I think one of the earlier posters who said toddlers are physically exhausting and teenagers are mentally exhausting had it spot on.

I have four children and my teens so far are (at 16 and almost 15) really lovely, compliant, funny and great fun to be with - but the worries about the friendship dramas (DD) to the academic stresses (DS - at highly selective grammar and about to take GCSEs), coupled with worrying about drugs, drinking, SM pressures etc is draining.....and mine are (thus far) easy children.

DD was never horrible as a teenager, but like Panicmode the friendship issues, bullying, relationship issues and academic pressures were extremely hard and mentally draining to deal with.

Teenagers need their parents far more on an emotional level than toddlers do where a kiss and a cuddle just makes everything better.

Teenagers.

We have had 4 years or turmoil for DD1, who is finally on a more even keel, and now DD2 is struggling. The emotional turbulence has also coincided with me hitting my late 40s/early 50s....

With toddlers and babies its exhausting and can be bery boring you are limited the worries are usually development ilness etc.

Teenagers its mentally exhausting, worries for me include my son getting in fights being stabbed, drinking too much, i worry that he wont do well, i worry when he is out all the time.
My teenage dd i worry she will get attacked or raped, i worry about if she is out and not home

So equally stressful but i find teenagers harder as u can't control what they do or where they are, although i trust my kids its others i dont

Toddler was way much harder than a teen.
It was at times very repetative and limiting and at the times boring. I got fed up off listening to whining when they didn't get their own way. I did enjoy it mostly but the later years were much better.
I loved the teen years and would go through them again if I could.