@Bbq1
I really enjoy every stage of being a mum but loved it when my ds was a toddler. He was so chatty, funny and cute. He was a real little friend I could chat with (he was an early talker) and have lots of fun with. I certainly wouldn't call it anything approaching relentless or boring. How can anyone feel like that about their own child? No, I don't think perfect or special, I just don't understand how spending time with your dc is seen as some kind of chore.
@bbq1 I felt like this when my DC were toddlers (close in age, so they were toddlers together). They were awake for about 13 hours a day, and those 13 hours were spent doing things with them, chatting with them, reading to them, doing boring household stuff, shopping with them, etc, etc. Then they went to bed and I could do absolutely nothing for a couple of hours.
In fact, I was probably quite smug. Having had teenagers, I now realise that I was just much better with toddlers than I am with teenagers. Other posters will find this incomprehensible, but I find the demands of teenagers really are relentless, and I find the girls' friendship dramas, social media strops, selfies, etc, etc unspeakably boring (all much worse during lockdown, because they've had nothing else to do). Plus they never go to bed, and won't tidy up at the end of the day if you turn it into a nice game.
At least you can walk away from your average teenager when they’re being a tosser, the three year old just follows you shouting even louder
Not my experience. They just follow you, shouting in properly loud voices, desperate to pick a fight with you just for something to do. I just want to run away and not come back when that happens.
A lot of it is nature (any one child's particular disposition), a lot of it is nurture, there's a lot of luck, plus their peer group, friendships ... a whole host of things. Some of us hate the baby stage, but love toddlers. Some of us hate the toddler stage and love teenagers. Some of us love all of it. Some of us find it all a slog. Rather than doing an @Elfblossom saying (to the OP, in this case), If your toddler is hard work then it's possible that it's because of things you're doing or not doing, perhaps it's better for us all to acknowledge that most of us find some parts of parenting really, really difficult and relentless and boring, and some parts fantastic and joyful and lovely? The people who find it all awful or all fantastic do exist, obviously, but they are not the majority. Anyone who bothers to post on here is, on the whole, trying to do their best.
I would also say that if I had been WFH when I had toddlers, and hadn't been able to take them to friends' houses, coffee mornings, toddler groups, parks, soft play, shops (IKEA was always a good bet on a wet day) whenever I felt like it, I might have felt very, very different.
Lockdown has been sheer Hell for me, but I still think that WFH parents of cooped up small children have been worst off of all (even if they have still been paid).