Which age of parenting was hardest for you?

[tulipsandteacups]

Interested to know... and why?

First child newborn stage. 100%

Teenage years. Pretty much since starting high school.

Also no teenagers yet. dC are 6 and 8,

16 - 20 so far. By a landslide

Yep.

15 (although she is 15 so don't know beyond that).

Thank you thank you thank you - my 3, nearly 4 year old DS is quiet honestly a dick at the moment

Currently loving having teens and not just my own..... I found 7-11 very difficult and still finding it hard on child number 3

God yes. My 5.5 year old is so argumentative - is that normal? He's also harder to entertain/please which is only going to get worse isn't it

0-3

13-15 years.

Up to 13 was easy.

0-6 months 100% was horrendous. My daughter had colic and reflux. She cried for hour and hours on end. We tried everything and nothing made it better. She just “grew out of it” Toddler stage has been easy compared to it!

Baby years for me. Dull and no sleep.

Couldn't wait for the teenage years. Really enjoyed them with my NT DS. Now in his mid 20s.

I'm a secondary teacher so that may have helped... not sure though.

0-2 for me, by a loooong way. Every year got a bit easier after that. Give me teenagers any day.

Currently really enjoying their twenties. So many new exciting firsts. Not looking forward to their thirties as I rather crashed and burned then and remember how desperately hard it was for my mum to know how much to help and when to step back . . .

Ten plus. Two girls, eldest nearly 15 now and I can see glimmers of hope again...

young children were easy for me.

The first three months. So I stopped bf and went back to work, we all then slept and I felt 100% better.
Nothing was ever as bad again as waking two hourly for weeks on end and mine are 20 and 18 now.

It's all hard.
Randoms loved telling me how difficult teen years are. This is because my youngest was a complete dick and would lie on the floor in various entrances to shops or in the middle of supermarket aisles. So that's why I'd receive these nuggets of wisdom as people stepped over him "it's only going to get worse just you wait"
I'm actually finding my boy aged 9 going on 10 pretty tedious tbh. I'd get less headache banging my head repeatedly on a wall.

Age 14 to 19 was hell with all three of mine. Now all in their 30s, successful professionals with families of their own, but still know exactly how to press the buttons.

0-1 but mine are still young. This thread fills me with fear.

I found the early years physically exhausting, partly as I had one baby after another. Loved them, lots of fun and pleasure, but it was relentless.

Emotionally, I found the teen years harder in some ways, but I was getting more sleep.

They're adults now and it's SO much easier all round. I really enjoy them almost all the time.

Agreed! Without a doubt.

Teens so 13-18. They know it all, are too big to pick up, hate you and think you're embarrassing.

My teens (boys) were a breeze

My worse times were around 2 - 4 years old.

8-9 for all 3 of mine. The age where they learned to challenge. Teenage years were a doddle.

Whichever stage I'm currently in!
That's when you feel the ebbs and flows, and have the active fears for the future.
Looking back, every stage that has gone before is laced with nostalgia.

either 0 and 2, because of the sleepness nights but having to do stuff with toddler;

or when they were 2/3 and 4/5 - so we had logistics of two places to drop them off / pick them up on work days, lengthy potty-training for youngest, plus non-compliant 2 year old when time to leave house for school drop off/pick up on non-work schooldays.

16/18 with one doing GCSEs and one doing A levels pretty awful too just from the stress within the house, exacerbated by DH nagging DS to revise; but teen years otherwise quite pleasant at times!