To be pssed off with Mothers Of Teenagers telling me how great it is having toddlers

[morningpaper]

Today:

: Oh you're so lucky to have two girls, they are best at this age.
(while cleaning up bits of pasty from the floor):
: I've got teenagers, and I only hear from them once a day!
: (crawling under pram to retrieve ripped up tissue) Sounds perfect
: (Going all serious and slightly affronted) No really, you don't know how lucky you are.

AAAAAAAAAAAAARGGGGGGGGGGGGGH

this kind of thing REALLY REALLY annoys me

[Kathyis6incheshigh]

Wisteria - LOL @ your response to my post.

MIL swears DH was a perfectly nice teenager; indeed she also swears he was completely rational as a toddler.

Only, as somebody's reference to VSO reminds me, she went off to work in Switzerland for several years and only saw him in the holidays.
He played drums, too. God I bet he was awful.

[TransfiguratingLily]

Hi Paddington

The trick is to have a teenager and a toddler all at the same time. My teenage ds is brilliant with the little ones.

[Wisteria]

Kathy Glad you're LOL and not offended, I wasn't implying you were overweight because obviously everyone except me on MN is size 8, beautiful and 5'8" !! Just a delightful thing my dd1 said to me recently (I think she was trying to help )

[Cloudhopper]

Toddlers are bloody hard work, especially on very little sleep, and life feels like a never-ending rollercoaster. Mine drive me up the wall at times, and months of prozac are testament to that.

But they are 100% totally yours. I think the mothers of teenagers are looking back wistfully because in some ways they are never quite as much yours as when they are tiny. The innocence and gullibility. The total control you can have over what they are up to.

They do say that you never appreciate what you have till it's gone and all that.

None of which helps when you are in a supermarket queue, covered in sick/milk/food, with eyes like raisins in a big doughy face.

[morningpaper]

I think what annoys me is that the Mothers Of Teenagers are usually standing calmly in the queue with nice clothes and make-up and a basket of clothes that she has probably actually TRIED ON, with no sign of screaming children hanging off her

Grrr I have not been more than 10 feet away from my children for 12 days - can you tell?!

[pointydog]

Yeah but you should see the mother of teenagers at midnight...

[chenin]

This is the sort of thread I love on MN. Its great to look back on the toddler years but berluddy hell, I wouldnt want it again! It is physically exhausting.. I never got my sleep patterns back to how they were before I had babies.
Teens are mentally soooo exhausting... they drain you with every inch of themselves in a mental way. You have to be sharp and on the ball with them, otherwise they can walk all over you... give an inch and they take more than a mile!
Agree with custy, the ages 8-11 is magic. You can still get that age to do things. You can't get teens to do things if they decide not to. Its like being a politician, adjudicator, peacemaker, counsellor, psychotherapist rolled into one. But I do love it and feel privileged to watch my teens growing up and slowly severing that cord that ties you to them. Boo hoo!

[SleeplessInTheStaceym11House]

oh im dreading teenagedom but my dcs are a PITA atm (2.8yo and 8mo) but i know what i was like as a teenager (wasnt that long ago) and i dread them getting there, really!

[lilolilmanchester]

I have a teenager and a pre-teen. They were toddlers once too! I think each stage seems more difficult cos it's new to you and just as you learn to deal with one stage and the new challenges/issues/worries, the DCs move on to the next phase and you're back to learning again. I tend to look back at my children's toddler years very fondly. But rather like the pain of childbirth, you tend to forget just how relentless it was at the time.When you are facing yet another teenage strop/unreasonable argument, you long for the cute toddler snuggling on your lap (forgetting about the sick/tantrums/non-stop whirl of being ToddlerMum).
Good thread, I'll never make the mistake of telling MumsofToddlers how lucky they are now! In return, you all must promise to remember this thread when YOU have teenagers!!!

[lilolilmanchester]

Kerry, didn't copy what you said re childbirth, got interrupted (by teenager moaning that I'd been on computer too long - honest truth!) and x posted

[MrsMuddle]

When my DSs were small my house smelled of shit and banana. Then there were 8 glorious years of freshly-washed boy smell. Now it stinks of trainers and Lynx. And I either don't see my own children for days on end or else I have a pack of them, all stinking of Lynx and all with the mobiles ringing simultaneously WITH DIFFERENT RINGTONES! Those were halcyon days, that time of shit and banana.

[MarsLady]

I currently have both.

No change in any of them. They all think that they are the centre of the universe.

I love and loathe them equally!!!!!!!! Actually I love love love them (and continue to loathe different things they do).

[Malfoynomore]

lol at mars

[juuule]

"I've heard tell that boys get easier as they get older and girls get tougher. (but that boys are tougher when they're younger) "

Hahahahaha... boys get easier as they get older....hahahaha..sorry...
Girls get tougher ...nope not ours.
boys are tougher when they're younger....nope not ours.

Someone's been telling you fairy stories

[SleeplessInTheStaceym11House]

it depends on the kids.

my bro was always pretty good, i was a tantruming toddler and a nightmare teen!!

my poor mum!

[Malfoynomore]

lol, it must be down to the individual child then...still hoping that because tot years were tough, and no I am not jsut saying that, that teenage years will be plain sailing....



not that I really believe that but there is wishful thinking

[REBELlatrixlestrange]

Mine are inbetween, eldest becomes a teenager next month, eeek.

I remember that as babies and toddlers, you'd solve one issue, only for the next issue to seem even bigger, blah blah blah.

I think the toddler years themselves are harder physically, day in day out, but for me it's the lack of control over my boys as they grow that makes me weary. Are they where they say they're going to be? What has happened to them if they're 2 minutes late for whatever reason. Will they survive that camp/school trip/competition just because mum's not with them, etc etc?

My boys are a "good age" at the moment (for me).

Not quite sure how we'll cope with three blustering hormonal teenagers...

[bozza]

Well DS has really got progressively easy through his 6 years. The same can not be said for DD.... and it's not just the 6 year bit.

[JammyPotter]

yabu in my opinion

the teenager mums had toddlers once and were doing exactly what you are doing. Each stage brings new trials i think. However overall, worrying about whether toddler will piss inm the pot or the teenager going out and smoking it - its no contest in my book. Perhaps you felt she was being smug ?

[Beelliesebub]

I've got four boys ranging from 14 to 20. I used to think the mass brawl in the middle of the floor was endearing when they were younger but its a nightmare at this age.
Now they're all taller than me and pat me on the head, are always on their mobiles or borrowing mine cos they've got no credit, they all stink of excessive aftershave application/feet and even though they're not home most of the time you spend all your time worrying about where they are and what they're doing.
When they were little one of them was always winding the others up, I never realised any human creature could scream so loud and at the exact pitch that made me want to slam dunk them and they were always up to no good.
I can honestly say that I don't think any stage was better than any other or any worse, just varying degrees of what have you done now?
Having said all that I wouldn't part with any of them and I'm glad I had them but I can't wait for grandchildren......
Firstly because I can give them back and secondly to get my own back......

[Lilymaid]

When DSs were little I used to go shopping for clothes and end up just buying clothes for them because they and the clothes were so cute. Now, despite having a larger income, I can't afford to buy nice clothes as the great hulking brutes are expensive to maintain (every type of sporting apparel required, tenners borrowed and not repaid, vast appetites etc). I can however, window shop alone (providing they don't require me for taxi service. And to cap it all, I found my DS sneaking off on a two week rugby tour this morning with my hair straighteners. What did he intend to use them for?

[WendyWeber]

re boys/girls - my girls were much more difficult as young teenagers than the boys - the boys treat us as human beings rather than the Stasi.

Mind you the girls are older, so I suppose I practised on them - I am a lot more tolerant (= old and worn out ) now which might have something to do with it.