I know I am AIBU, but whenever child-free ppl complain about being tired I get annoyed, barring medical/health issues

[worldenoughandtime]

This is just a secret confession here, in the anonymity of the internet, and I hope I have enough social skills to disguise my true feelings. Which is of extreme annoyance when child-free people complain about being tired (given there are no aggravating health concerns). (In my social circle at least, people complain about being tired and busy all the time).

The tiredness that comes with managing kids - especially more than one, and especially for lone/single parents of which there seems to be more and more- is just on a different level. Needed to get that off my chest.

Oh get stuffed. Do you think there is honestly only one main source of tiredness and stress? Does everyone have equal commitments? What about those who have varying combinations of demanding work, study, travel, caring responsibilities, whatever else? Children are just one of the possible components that can make life tiring.

I know! Thank goodness the op is willing to sacrifice so much for the betterment of society, unlike us selfish barren husks of women who will turn into lonely old women with no one to care for them.

Why are you comparing? It sounds like maybe you are jealous of child-free women? You mentioned the anonymity of your post enabling you to be honest. But is your real anonymous confession that you actually regret having children, and deeply resent child free women as a result?
Regardless, you should probably stop comparing yourself to, and criticising CF women...

Do you have a job, @worldenoughandtime?

Thank you for your sacrifice

Just waiting for 'my kids are going to be paying the pensions and wiping the arses of you feckless childfree wasters when you're old!'

Whenever people with only two (presumably neurotypical) children complain about how tired they are, I get annoyed.

You know nothing of what is going on behind closed doors, they maybe in an abusive relationship, they maybe carefor elderly parents, or help others out with childcare, they may have lost a partner who knows, you dont. They may have un diagnosed medical issued

its not a competition to the bottom

YABVU

People really do hate child free people, don't they?! Maybe if you expended less energy on your 'extreme annoyance' about other people's life choices and the consequences of those choices, you'd be less tired.
I'm sure it is tiring. Just like caring is, insomnia is, doing such long hours you kip on the sofa at work is. It doesn't need to be a competition, we are all allowed to be tired if we are tired!

I specified that I am not counting health concerns. So if you have a thyroid condition or insomnia (my sympathies, I have it too and it's horrible) or autism which exacerbates your fatigue, I will not get as (internally) annoyed when hearing your complaints of tiredness.

And obviously you sleep better when your condition has proper medication.
@Lividity bracketing health concerns, are you actually less tired, even though you get less sleep as a mom to a non-sleeping toddler, than you were before you were a parent? That is amazing, and I'm glad you found the right medication!!

This is just a secret confession here, in the anonymity of the internet, and I hope I have enough social skills to disguise my true feelings

No. No you don't have the social skills or you wouldn't have said it. You'd have thought it, but you'd have kept it to yourself. Like anyone with a modicum of tact or sensitivity would.

All this. A nasty thread for the sake of being nasty.

Oh yes. That'll be it.
I think GF OP needs a collective head tilt.
It must be terrible OP thinking that your children are hard work.

Child-free by choice, I remember being admonished in the sauna at the gym by a divorced middle-aged man who said I would die a lonely and unloved old woman. That tired me.

☝️☝️☝️This! If you are so tired, how are you finding the time to go on to Mumsnet and lash out at an entire demographic?! Oh, the irony!

How dare you say things like ‘you’re clearly not very intelligent’ to people you don’t know. You’re clearly a complete bitch

The irony

People with children often don’t have capacity to fill their life with other things that make them tired. My sister over extends herself with volunteering and leading community hobby groups that bring great value to many people. She has no children. She gets utterly knackered. My child free colleague has a job with a lot of travel and barely is in the same place two weeks in a row. She also gets exhausted.

I somewhat understand your point OP, if I only consider my own experience of tiredness both pre and post children. Having been blessed with an incredibly poor sleeper I haven’t had a single uninterrupted night’s sleep in almost 4 years and I also work full time, so undoubtedly my own tiredness is on another level now than anything I’d ever experienced before DS was born.

That said, I don’t think you can extrapolate out from that and say that child free people as a whole aren’t able to experience tiredness to the same degree. We all live different lives, work different jobs, have different commitments/drains on our time and energy and so on. It’s perfectly possible for any combination of those factors to mean that a child free person experiences tiredness absolutely equivalent to, or indeed greater than, my own.

So if you have a thyroid condition or insomnia (my sympathies, I have it too and it's horrible) or autism which exacerbates your fatigue, I will not get as (internally) annoyed when hearing your complaints of tiredness

OK, this is a windup. I mean, no-one's this stupid, are they?

Maybe we're all exhausted from putting up with shitty attitudes like the OPs, has she ever thought of that I wonder?

Not all toddlers are non sleeping-

What you actually mean is 'No one could possibly be as tired as me'.

What about people whose toddlers sleep less than you?

I have kids. They sleep as they are older. I have a job which is regularly 60-70 hours a week. 2 dogs that need walking and looking after. My widowed Dad to look after and a house to run. Those things exhaust me and limited how much sleep I can get. Not the kids.

Oh stfu

On that basis I could say I'm more tired than you because my jobs more complex. Because I can't sleep. Etc etc.

Sometimes really find parents entitled ... "the world owes me something because I was fortunate enough to have a child. All you baron women should look at me in envy because I made it out of the house with the kids" 🥱

Nobody has no idea how tired someone else is feeling, child free or otherwise. Why on earth everything has to be a competition I don’t know.
As a child free person, I get sick of the low level undertone that us childless people ‘don’t know real love, don’t know what real tiredness is, don’t understand how hard life is, aren’t living a full life…’ honestly I’ve heard it all.

Hey at least us childfree people are tired from all our cool hobbies and jet-setting rather than wiping babies’ arses

Child-free by choice, I remember being admonished in the sauna at the gym by a divorced middle-aged man who said I would die a lonely and unloved old woman. That tired me

I get tired of contemplating that people like the OP are raising children and handing on shitty ignorant attitudes.