To really, really dislike small children

[lakewiththewhiteswan]

I know it's sounds awful.

Before I had children I pictured myself as a Mary poppins character , smiling serenely as children flocked naturally towards me, staring up at me with awed expressions and gently holding out a hand for me to clutch.

As it is I LOVE my children but gosh I find them relentless and hard, hard work. I know it's not their fault, they are good children but normal children so obviously everything is all about them.

The problem is they are so full on and demanding it just pushes anything else out. I can't have a conversation with a friend or DH or do anything really!

PLUS many friends have small children who do not treat me with starry expressions. Mostly they burst into tears if you smile at them

I'm glad I have had children but I wish I could cut out this 2-6ish period, I cannot cope!

I don't particularly like children either. Barely tolerate my own.

Some are hilarious though

They don't get much better as they get older.

So far tonight I've had DD1 on the phone from uni telling me that kettlegate has now escalated to fridge wars. She's 18. The main protaganist in all this drama is 22 ffs.

DD2 has just taken 45 minutes to put pj's on and go to fucking bed. She has dithered and faffed to epic proportions tonight. She's 11. I very nearly lost my shit.

And I smiled at a baby in the supermarket today and he burst into tears.

Mary Poppins I'm not.

YANBU. I teach Reception age and love them, love being around children, love being a parent and love their company. But when I'm not at work or with my own DCs I have no time or truck with children. They stare balefully at me and only ever smile when DH gets involved (babies especially love him, possibly because he smells of biscuits and milk).

Love my child, found having a small child ridiculously hard and boring. Happy now (she's 7)

Can't be fucked with other people's young children.

I like them more when they get to about five. They are less annoying then.

But I don't have a teenager yet, not looking forward to that either.

They stare balefully at me

Yeah, what is it with that? Less Mary Poppins, more Cruella de Ville

I don't mind teenagers. They are a pain in the arse but I understand why.

I felt a bit like this when my children were 2-6, I can really emphasise with the relentless of it all.

However.....now I have a DD16 and DS14, I dream (through rose tinted glssses) of those days....

Yeah i cant bear other peoples kids. They whine too much.

I love children but not babies I find them dull and squishy (not in a good way) everyone told me that I would feel differently about my own but until about 18 months ds1 bored and frustrated me ds2 is better hes 8 months now and entertaining aboht 25% of the time.

Give me a bunch if 2/3/4 year olds any day my favorite age group.

I was very much going to write this exact thread recently. Used to really quite like the idea of them until I guess they actually started popping up everywhere around me. Now they're just tedious and mostly little shits.
I do however make the exception with my dd but she's only 1 so may re think that in a year or so..

I don't know why you can't even have a conversation with a friend. If your kids constantly interrupt you then stop them! I really hate this idea put about that you can't do anything at all when you have small kids.

I can't stand children, any children, any age!

I have a 6 month old and a 23 month old!

I've never liked children but now I have my own I am even more intolerant and uninterested in other peoples poxy kids because I'm so knackered from my own.

I avoid baby groups, kids birthday parties, trips anywhere kid orientated during school holiday because I don't want to spend any time at all around other peoples bloody kids.

That felt sooooo therapeutic :)

I really don't like children. Except my own. I've been really pleasantly surprised by how much I've loved having my own.....but I don't have any more patience with or tolerance for anyone else's. Sounds a bit awful when I put it like that, but it's true. Better that way than the other way round, I suppose.....!

Does get a bit overwhelming sometimes. Tonight I told DD to just leave me for 5 minutes so I can drink a cup of tea without endless 'muuUUUUmmy' shouts. I felt a bit guilty but come on. Hours and hours of it. yet she wouldn't play with me, wouldn't have a conversation...just seemingly wanted to repeat my bloody name!

I don't particularly like kids except for my own tbh. I wouldn't say I dislike them but I do find them extremely annoying sometimes. Before having kids I was one of those who would be handed my baby neice and be a bit 'wtf do I do with this, I hope it doesn't puke on me' whilst holding her like a football and counting down the seconds until someone else took her . Now I can fake attention quite well..

It's ok once they are through early teen stage. Small children are horrible, especially other people's. And oh god, it gets worse when your best friends become grandparents.....All the smiling and nodding and doting on what is just another wailing toddler ....

For me it's the endless interaction - talking all the time, needing you to drop everything to help them all the time, dealing with arguments and tears all the time... I like and love them, but I wish I could be with them in companionable silence sometimes. I need headspace and to be able to think. That's why I love working!

As they get older I do find it easier, and I hope I will quite like having teens. I like having proper chats and jokes with them.

Ages 2-4 were hardest for me and when I'm with people who have kids that age the stress and exhaustion comes flooding back!

Other people's kids make me very grateful for my own though! I realise other people probably feel the same about mine but they are wrong

Fair weather
"I can't stand children, any children, any age!

I have a 6 month old and a 23 month old"

This confuses me. Were you like the OP?

I can't abide little children. I barely coped with my friends' kids, no way would I have had my own. I didn't have much experience of little kids till my friends had them but you only need a tiny bit of interaction to know how you feel about them?

Do people just really look forward to having adult children around? That's gotta be a long 20 years!!

Yes, you do sound awful.

You can't "really really dislike" any innocent person without seriously lacking something.

I Hate children I find them irritating and small.

I especially have an irrational dislike of most of my friends children. No idea why. I find the whining intolerable.

Oh god I'm right in the thick of it at the moment with my two year old. I love and hate him in equal measures most days

As for other peoples kids, there are a select few that I like in small doses.

I have to admit I have little interest in other people's small babies. Under about nine months I have no interest and no I don't want to hold them.
I help out in a toddler group once a week and love that though and kids seem to find my face funny but as I explain to them I do too.

Other people's kids are fab too as I can return them.

i hate children I find them irritating and small can you imagine how painful it would be giving birth to something over 4ft? I get the irritating but they can't really help being small!