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.

🍿

Before I had kids I was always tired, I've always had rubbish sleep and I had other responsibilities.

YABVU.

Im a single parent to one year old twins and an older child and work full time in a challenging job do I win the competitive tiredness competition 🏅

I would roll my eyes at a 20 something old complaining of tiredness probably but so many other factors come into it - health, stress, job etc, not necessarily whether we have children or not

Not Food it should be Dfod..

Your assumption is that child-free people are tired through their own choosing. Staying up late etc. But parents are tired through choosing to have children? It's not exactly a secret that children are tiring.

Although if this is a "I'm the tiredest person that ever lived" competition, let me add my entry...
4 children
3 teens, 1 toddler
Toddler doesn't sleep
1 teen with SEN
Full time teacher
Insomnia due to WRS
Full on 6 days a week + wfh Sundays so minimal down time
Snoring husband that you can still hear downstairs with nose cancelling earplugs

Do I win?

Yea because childless me can't possibly feel exhausted each night after spending my day teaching other people's children and dealing with the behaviour and needs of each child

I don't think I'm any more tired with a toddler than I was when I was childfree. I'm mostly tired after working 13 hour nursing shifts or just staying up too late, same as always.

I think you’re missing the point

I don't think I'm not missing any point, thanks. OP's comment was I have noticed that child-free people do become emotionally invested in things that occupy the similar sort of "child-like" role of concern, worry, and financial expenditure in their lives

i.e implying that childfree people live a childlike existence. At least, re-reading it I assume that's her meaning. Her prose isn't what you'd call readily comprehensible.

And that should be I don't think I'm missing any point, thanks

I'm a childless 52 year old. However, I'm utterly exhausted. Today I woke up at 8am, walked my two dogs, did a 6 mile run and then did a barre workout. I then had to traipse to the post office to return some shoes, and then go to a dressmaker to get a dress altered. I then went for a pedicure and manicure, a massage, stopped for a quick latte, before heading to m and s to get something for dinner, which my boyfriend is now preparing whilst I have a glass of Cloudy Bay. I don't even have the energy for a bath 😴. I'm utterly exhausted 😩.

Fuck me, us childfree people really can't do anything right can we?

@Chikapu you took the words right out of my mouth!

I was much tireder in a high pressure job, commuting 5 days a week than I have ever felt with kids + working part time 🤷🏻‍♀️

Kudos to you, OP, for your honesty, but what you've posted is a load of bollox.

Yrs

Knackered Childfree Person

I'm childless (not child free) but spend 10 hours a day looking after 12 toddlers. Do I get an exemption?

Crikey, you defo win. My sister has 1 year old twins but she has her husband to support her. God knows how you do it alone!

Now I feel like I am inferior in this tiredness contest tbh. Feel a bit embarrassed that I even entered it 😂

I work almost FT in a challenging role and I have 2 DC, one is a non sleeping toddler but the other is older and mostly independent... it's knackering juggling everything and I'm meeting myself coming back most days but - I'm not managing twins single-handedly!

I shall reluctantly hand my medal over to you @crimbocountdown .... 🏅

What about childless people who are carers for elderly parents? Are they entitled to be knackered?!

I have 2 kids and have been a carer for my elderly mum for a decade and I work. By your perspective people ONLY looking after children should not be tired?

But I don't think like that as life is variable shades of grey and not at all black and white!

I have to two kids, work full time, have a husband and I'm tired. 🤷🏽‍♀️

I was tired before I had them. When I was 24 and I'll be tired when they grow up, too.

I'm a sleepy person.

I've raised children, and that is definitely not the most tired I've ever been, or the most stressful thing I have done,

Maybe it is for you OP, but we are all different

My dc are grown, my tiredness comes from my bloody tough job and menopausal sleep problems.

People get tired for different reasons, yabvu.

You just wait till you hit the menopause op, then you'll know what fucking tired is.

I was a single parent to DC from them being 4 and 5 and worked part time until they were 10 and 11 when I went full time - ExDH had them for one night every 2 weeks and I had no family to help
I’m now 58 and they are grown up I work more than full time in a stressful job and provide help to elderly DM with Alzheimer’s
You are talking rubbish - everyone and their situations are different - I’m more tired now than I have ever been and wonder how I’m going to get through the next 10 years till I retire

Of course YABU. Stupid thread. You make yourself look ridiculous. Engage brain before posting!!

I'm curious as to why, if you needed to get it off your chest OP, you chose to come on a forum that specifically has topics for infertility and is therefore likely to be frequented by people who want to be parents but can't be. And might have lost children along the way. Just seems particularly nasty compared to say, moaning to other mums you know in person.

YANBU. I have never felt tired like having a baby tired, and you don't get the same time and space to rest and recover when you have a baby, even with lots of support like I have. Before I had children I never minded parents saying this since it did look exhausting and it was one of the reasons I didn't want kids initially. But some (tedious, insecure) people are sensitive and defensive about it, so I wouldn't generally say it out loud. Of course there are other reasons including illness and different dependents (elderly parents etc) which can create the same challenges, I don't mind if people in those positions say it either.