Are toddlers harder than newborns (in your experience?)

[Joppi]

I have a newborn and finding it challenging for various reasons (often no daytime naps so can be relentless, evening crying, v hard to settle etc)

but then I often read posts on here about the toddler stage being so tough!

interested to hear others perspectives of the pros and cons of newborn + toddlers, and which was better!

Toddlers much easier than new bones imo

In my experience toddlerhood is great! We had an extremely tough time from birth to 18 months, it was so bad I almost didn't make it through to the other side, but then everything changed. I actually love being a mum now!

In my entirely anecdotal experience, totally depends on the baby and the toddler. I think truthfully some kids are just harder to look after than others and not anything anyone 'does' well or badly. My autistic child was really hard work at every stage. My NT child was easy at every stage. Love them both but no comparison.

Newborns are harder by a million miles in my experience!
The shock of motherhood and lack of time to yourself. The sleep deprivation and in some cases PND.

I adore our 3 year old and find it generally easier as time goes on.

Entirely depends on the child. Mine had feeding problems and would only contact nap or sleep in the buggy (which had to be moving) so baby stage was awful (covid didn't help). Early toddler years were wonderful. She's now 3.5 and has just hit the "three-nager" stage 😫. She's still wonderful though.

No. My eldest is 6 so I haven’t done the teenage years yet but so far nothing has been as hard as the newborn stage.