Do you have an age of children you dislike the most?

[SashMontgomery]

I’ve been thinking for a while that somethings going on with my daughter and I and I’ve been trying to find ways to repair our “broken bond”.

But I have just spent a whole week with other kids her age and I realised, I think it’s just this age group that I don’t like very much! I mentioned to my friend and she said she can’t stand the toddler age where’s as that’s my fave one.

Was just wondering if anyone else had preferences like this!

Palomino, I echo you. Baby to two was absolutely shite and I hated EVERY second of it. We eventually adopted our second child, no way was I doing that again!!!!

I was a play worker and youth worker for 20yrs , I just gave up last year( I'm a practicing retiree) both gave me joy for different reasons

About 13-15 was the worse - the back chat and rudeness - ... I found the baby/toddler years very easy but I was lucky to have an exceptionally good natured baby ... nearly 10 years on from those difficult years and fortunately mostly forgotten!

I loved newborn and toddler stage. Have a toddler atm which I think is making the 10 year old seem even more irritating! My husband wants another baby and I’ve said whilst I’d love another baby, I don’t want another child so we’re sticking with 2. I have siblings who are teens and they’re awesome so hoping daughter grows out of this irritating stage quickly!

Honestly I disliked every age for one reason or another, but also liked all the ages for other reasons. Motherhood was and still is tough for me even after 28 years, but I’m not maternal and am an extreme introvert so that had a lot to do with it too.

11-13 was the hardest emotionally, just post COVID lockdowns - she had COVID twice - once really badly and took months to recover a bit like glandular fever. Struggled with the transition to high school, became very reliant on me emotionally, seemed to regress in terms of confidence and independence, autism diagnosis at 13. Year 9 was better. Year 10 has been a breeze she's back to her independent self, enjoying new found freedoms - shopping in the city with friends etc, learnt to manage her time and energy levels effectively so autism generally under control and rarely melts/shuts down now as knows when feeling overwhelmed and nips the triggers in the bud.

What I miss is the big toddler hugs around the neck and when you pick them up and they melt into you.

Newborn, 8-10, 13-15

They’ve been little arseholes at different ages for me.
my eldest, wonderful baby, excellent toddler and a dream of a teenager.

6-7 he was lucky I didn’t send him to live with wolves, they may have been the only ones to control him.

the others aren’t old enough to have a definitive arsehole age yet, I’ll update after teen years.

Yep yep I agree with this! 8-10 for me, just can’t be bothered with it. It’s a weird inbetweeny stage between little kid and big kid, they think they’re too old and cool for toys and stuff but they’re not actually old enough for the stuff they want to do so they just mope about whinging about screens and going out. Annoying and boring. Also heralded the start of a lot of friendship dramas and general bullshit, for DD at least. She’s 12 now and largely through the drama with her head currently screwed on straight so I’m hoping that bodes well for the teen years!

Toddlers. Love having teens

I don’t dislike it but parenting 16/17/18 year old is most stressful and my least favourite stage.

The stakes are so high. The consequences to making mistakes are so much bigger.

Exams. Learning to drive. Going out in the car or (even worse for me, in the car with friends driving). The inevitable experiments with alcohol (no drugs so far thankfully).

They’re very independent but have so much still to learn.

I wouldn't say I actively dislike them, but I think babies are pretty dull. Of course when my own were tiny I loved them but I definitely wouldn't want to do it again now and I have no interest in other people's. I enjoyed every stage at the time really but looking back I would say I enjoyed the newborn stage least and teens most.

In order of how bad they were, least to worst:

8, went through a really bratty phase which is apparently quite common. Very demanding, attention seeking and stroppy. Sarcastic and rude. Lots of tantrums and tears.

11, making lots of very personal digs, inserting themselves into adult situations, like commenting on division of labour in the household, stirring up (or trying to stir up) arguments between adults, making up rumours. Luckily, that phase was short lived.

3.5, possibly the worst 6 months I've had with either kid to date, massive inconsolable tantrums over apparently nothing and just totally impossible to reason with.

My children are both really lovely, sweet-natured kids, completely different but both great company so these years stood out as just horrible.

So far I've loved every single age and stage! But newborn was the hardest!! (I'd love newborn hug again though)

Toddler. The phase where you give food, and they throw said food, repeat ad finitum.

I dislike being around other people’s toddlers, I didn’t dislike
my own, obviously. I will go out of my way to avoid spending any length of time (any if I’m honest) in a restaurant with a toddler.

I am fine with toddlers when they’re doing what they do best….toddling! But when they’re confined to a seat…it’s my version of hell.

Mum of 2 boys and gran to a girl.

I was a bit bored with the baby/toddler stage, but thoroughly enjoyed my two from about the age of 8 until they left home😁

Granddaughter on the other hand, loved every single stage of her life, her upcoming teens may be interesting however......🤣

Eldest didn’t sleep for first 8 months that nearly broke me. She basically screamed all night. Nothing has been as bad as that so far.

She was a gorgeous but mean toddler who went went through a stage of rejecting me when she was about 2 that I found quite hard. Apart from that she has been a delight.

Dd2 is amazing easy a d gorgeous and apart from wild outfits in teen years has never given any trouble. She had a cruel time when she was 13 and betrayed by a best friend and kicked out of her friendship group. That was an awful time as we were so powerless. She would walk up the front path having held
the tears in all day and just sob when we opened the door. Bloody awful.

ive got to say newborn to 7 is a breeze for me, but ive currently got a 8 year old and a 10 year old,they can be abit of a nightmare and abit sassy tbh they also like to bicker like cat and dog!
ive a 13 year old brother who although sits in his room alot hes rude and likes to think he knows it all!
my 4&5 year old are so easy compared to the older children.

I haven't done the teenage years yet. They scare me a bit...

18 months. Totally dangerous to themselves. They seem determined to do all manner of dangerous things.

0-18. Which is why I'm childfree.

The description of the 8 and 11 year old stages was what I meant on my post, only you described it better!

Newborn - 2. Everything above that was lovely, even the teen years.

Hate the toddler years with a passion.

16. They were both horrible, rude, ignorant, lazy and opinionated for about a year, but came out the other side reasonably civilised humans.

Was going to say similar. Birth to 30 about covers it 😁