What age most difficult

[Ineedsleepzz]

At what age did you find your children most difficult to parent?

My 3 year old is driving me absolutely nuts with all the backchat, the doing the opposite to what I ask, purposely lamping her sister for no reason. Just generally doing anything to get a rise.

This is definitely the hardest age for me. What about everyone else?

Perhaps 3 year old are known as threenagers because both are such difficult ages?

All of it until 3 and a half!!

Toddlers so far. But I’m fully expecting teens to be harder for at least one of mine.

Toddlers are relentless and boring, but at least they’re not complex.

On the other hand, I’m hopeful my teens won’t follow me around talking at me all day.

13 /14 / 15 with dc1, who is now lovely.

Dc2 has been pretty ok so far, but is currently 13.

Dc3 is 10 and very hard work... dreading the teen years.

Ok so it sounds like it's horrific at toddler age, not so bad in between and then a shit storm when they get to teenagers. Looking forward to it 🙈

At the moment 2 as he is my first and my god I have never ever been challenged this much in my life. If it was work, I'd resign. If it was a friend I'd go nc. If it was my DH, I'd LTB. But what can I do with a 2yo?

When two of mine were 3 they were hard work, now one of them is 12 and it's tough. I would say teenagers are trickier but it depends on their personality.

My DS is 3 too. I feel your pain op!!

@SpaghettiSpoons

Teens, without a shadow of a doubt. Plus they're bloody expensive!!

Agree

I've got dd15, dd10 and ds5 without a shadow of a doubt 2-3 was the hardest with all of them!

Never had a bit of trouble bar the odd hormonal strop with the girls in the tween/teen years.... so far 🙈🤣

0-9 months for DD1. High needs baby who was later diagnosed in childhood with autism. She didn't sleep longer than 40 minutes until she was 8 months old. Parenting will always be hard but I cannot imagine it'll ever be as hard as that was.

DD2 it's been insanely easy at every stage. She is Neurotypical with no additional needs.

I think it depends on the personality of both the child and the parent which stage is perceived as the hardest. The relentlessness of having to provide constant physical care for a baby while sleep deprived was awful for me, definitely the worst stage. Once they developed personalities (and STTN) they are much more interesting and I much preferred the toddler years, they were some of my favourite years in many ways. 5 to 12 are the dream years before the hormones hit. Although they can still be very frustrating at time! My DDs are 11 and 13 so I'm only at the beginning of the teenage years so I'll reserve judgement. But at least I get a full nights sleep now which makes everything better.

yes so true it depends on the child

I’m at 20 months and newborn to 1year was the hardest for me makes me shudder thinking about it , but then I had a horrific birth ptsd and a non sleeper. So now he sleeps so well it’s amazing. He’s not too bad tbh but has started hitting -throwing and having tantrums so that can be testing, there just so active aren’t they I wish they would sit still an chill and watch a film 🤣 I think teenagers will be easier as they like to sulk in there rooms a lot , I was a horrible teen so i know what to expect 🙈

My DS is 9 months. So far the hardest bits for me have been the newborn stage (recovering from the birth, the chronic sleep deprivation and just the relentlessness of it all) and... 9 months (the short attention span and constant whinging because he wants to be mobile but isn’t yet).

Yes 3 is also the hardest age for me too, but also bloody lovely. I’m trying to enjoy and savour every moment, even the tantrums make me laugh sometimes.

I have a 3 year old and she's definitely challenging at times, but I'd still say the sleep deprivation of the newborn stage hit hard!

My dc are pre-teen and I've found this last couple of years really difficult with no sign of getting better so I'm guessing I'm in for a really rough ride through the early teens.
I found toddlerhood difficult but I think this was because I had two of them (1.4 yr age difference) and my MH was taking a nosedive.
Now, I'd take those years again over now.

Definitely 1-3

Mine is 15 and very difficult age I think. Cries a lot about all different things.

The other one is 6 and just when I think it's getting easier we have days where she plays up all day and constantly pushes the boundaries

Girl 12-18 with 13/14 the worst. Boy now mid twenties never any real issues, tired and teasy pre-schooler at times.

13-17
A friend (with older children) once told me that "teenagers are gods way of making you let go".
It gets better!

For DD it was birth - 1. Colic & PND. Hell.

For DS I'd say, maybe the toilet training part at 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 or a difficult part of primary age 7, but that was not the age just the circumstance

I'm loving the teens. Much more enjoyable than the younger years .

I've experienced 0-9 (2 DDs and 2 SDs) for me nothing is as bad as newborn stage and up to about 6 months. Once they sleep I can just about deal with what's thrown at me. I say this as my 19 month old is currently tearing apart the living room and I'm about to lose the plot.