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 sort of know what TheFirstMrsDV means in that I find it much harder to say to friends in rl that I am struggling with my teen. (It seems much more acceptable to complain about broken nights and feeding probs etc.) Perhaps it is an expectation that you should have a handle on things by now? Or perhaps its just because many of my friends happen to have younger dc and haven't experienced the full force of adolescent mood swings yet. It's amazing the difference a year can make ... .

The advice on the teenagers threads can also seem quite harsh and uncompromising though: lock them in/lock everything down/take away all priviliges type thing almost as if they aren't human!

OP I think you can take heart that parenting can be tough at any stage depending on the characters of the individuals involved. I don't have enough dc to spout knowledge really, but judging from my friends, the parents that find the toddler part the hardest, are often those that find teens a breeze and vice versa!

Huldra

I stay away with work quite regularly and always at the same hotel in this one location. Found it fairly embarrassing last week to try and explain to our PA she needed to book me a different hotel, because my real reason was it's Easter and my lovely business hotel suddenly contains OTHER PEOPLES CHILDREN.

I feel you OP I love my little darlings but when they are screaming for something or their sweet little friends want to speak to me, or when my friends come round with their teens who want to join in and don't just go to fucking bed I realise I am nevwr going to be an Instagram mummy.

Oh and sweeping for context I can't stand 20-something's at the moment either

I'm with you on this! Mine are 7 &10 now and it does get better I promise!

My biggest problem is that one of my 20-somethings still acts like a 5yo.

That's funny because my 5yo tries to act like a 20yo, and one who's the boss of me

Parenting is bloody hard, relentless and knackering, I absolutely agree. But I just have issues with writing off a whole group rather than the individuals in it.

Silverdale/Evildoctor/Shelagh

I can't stand other people's children, 6yo dd is great on her own but talks non stop, her bestfriend is a horrible horrible child she's a rude spiteful little brat and horrid to dd but that's mostly down to her parents, I fantasise about kicking her sometimes . 3yo dd is annoying as hell and wont leave my side for 2 mins but I like her friends because I see so little of them.

How can u not love babies tho.... Getting smiles and laughs out of a baby has to be the best, most cheering feeling.

Yeah as long as it's someone else's baby and you're not off your face from sleep deprivation. I remember forcing myself to interact with my twins like that when they were tiny and I was on about 5x45 mins sleep a night. I felt really guilty that the face they saw all day was a miserable exhausted one so I came over like an overexcited cbeebies presenter for the first 4 months of their life.

I could have written your post op. Before dc I adored children and loved entertaining and spending time with them, and I still do I suppose. But there's a huge difference between spending a few hours with your kid cousins every now and again and the utter relentlessness and monotony of parenting.

I find them boring too op 😂

I also like my own company and not very keen on socialising 😂

Toomuchtooold.... U know ur right!!! And they get older and they remember nothing!!!

But still.... Getting Other peoples babies to smile is great!!

baronessbomburst, my DS is 7. Every FUCKING sentence he utters is about Minecraft. I've never even played the sodding game but I must know damn nearly everything there is to know about it.

Haha SlipperyJack I feel guilty now, aged 8-11 ish I was obsessed with horses and talked about them constantly.
Use to start sentences with "did you know..." and the whole family would groan! :S
I had an encyclopaedic knowledge, used to read massive great non-fiction books...
My poor parents!

I really, really dislike being a parent sometimes. I generally like children though, same as I generally like adults.

Can't have a conversation with a 3yo? Are you kidding?!

This thread is really sad. The picture it gives of children is so alien to my experience of what children are like. I think there must be an element of self fulfilling prophecy here - I enjoy children because I look for the best in them. I don't go into an interaction with a child thinking 'oh this is bound to be boring, wish they'd just shut up already, they're so whiny... etc'

The people saying they don't even like their own children....why do you have more than one if you dislike the first?

It took me three goes and half a day to read this thread because my DCs kept interrupting me! Mine are boring too, especially the toddler stage. DD was the worst, clingy, uninterested in toys and games unless it was to play the same, tightly scripted, repetitive crap.

Once I was pushing DD on a swing. From the outside it was idyllic, the sun was shinning, little toddler on a swing...all I could think was how bored I was.

DS is a bit better as he is much more interactive...still boring though!

I think some aspects of parenting are incredibly boring. I SO agree about pushing a child on the swing. I just stand there, saying of boredom. Basically I don't like the repetitive nature of parenting small children rather than the actual small children. I think mostly that is what these posts are about.

I am pretty sure that all the parents who are posting are not actually in deep throes of dislike for their infant children, probably just venting a bit.

Yanbu, I love mine but really don't feel much for someone else's. especially bratty, badly behaved ones.

I don't like the repetitive nature of parenting small children rather than the actual small children. I think mostly that is what these posts are about.

Hit the nail on the head on this one.

Between about 1 1/2 and 5 are great because theyre so easily impressed, there are very few adults I can impress with my expert knowledge of things like "a ladybird is actually a beetle".

I think the key for me though is that I can do it for an hour and then give them back! Im knackered after a few hours and need to go home and watch Netflix in peace.

Up until 5 😴🙄🤢😦😱💩
5-10 😊😂😍👍🏻
Teens - terrified. 🤑🤑🤑🤑not got there yet.

I'm so relieved it's not just me. Other people's small children are really hard work. Perhaps it's because you can't parent them, like you can your own. Mine are grown up now. They were really good kids for the most part.

But I find a lot of kids now are so badly behaved and the parents don't seem to do anything about it. On holiday, I was constantly dive bombed by kids. I've had little kids visit here, and they've been allowed to run riot and break my stuff. Wtaf?

The only children fit for purpose were my own and my dgc.

The rest are crap