What's the hardest stage between 0-5 years old?

[TVsh]

I'm just looking at my 8 month old, pulling himself up on everything, putting everything in his mouth. He's crawling so much now and I need to be on him constantly.

It's made me remember this stage with my 3 year old. She's still hard work, but she's getting a bit more reasonable. She's able to play on her own a bit. But it took ages for her to get to this stage and a bit less intense. I am remembering the stage when she started walking, she was just all over the place, never staying still. I would just spend hours on the floor with her. I couldn't let her out of my sight, even for a moment...

Anyway, I'm just thinking about what I've been through so far with my kids and I would say that the baby stage is hard, for sure... but especially my oldest, was quite a chilled baby and before she became mobile, it wasn't so so hard. So I would say that for me the baby stage was kind of OK. Age 8 months until 2 and a half is really very difficult.. 3 seems a bit easier.

What's to come ? Does it get easier after 3 again ? Or harder ? What were your hardest times, up to 5 years of age ? Just curious if you also found the baby stage a bit easier ? Or was that the hardest stage ?

My oldest is only two so I don't know but for mr hardest stage was sort of four to nine months.

My DD is 20 months and I'm finding this the hardest age so far I think, the constant tantrums and I don't know why (and I don't think she does either) and needing to entertain her constantly is exhausting

Ours is just One and going through a real phase right now. Up until about 3 weeks ago he slept through beautifully which means we also got a decent sleep which we desperately needed, because he is FULL on. He does not stop, does not cuddle and is a huge climber. He was standing at 7 months and starting to crawl, trying to step. Taking steps by 8 months.

We could handle that when he actually slept through, but now he goes down, wakes an hour later, takes 2 hours to settle, wakes again in the night, wakes early morning, and is up by half 7.

It entirely depends on the child and the parent, and wider circumstances at the time. I found there are different phases and stages within each year too, so it's impossible to say one particular year was the hardest and then it was all uphill.