What age did you find most challenging with your child?

[lavalamplady]

I have a 1year old - interested to know which age people found the biggest challenge

0-9 months then 13/14.

0-3 so far. From 4 it was easier, from 6 really lovely. Not had teenagers yet!

The first year. Awful and they both were good sleepers from about 3 months.

They are 33 and 21 now.

Birth-18 months, after that it was easy.

12-16. There was a sweet spot of 7-11

0-5. I struggled a lot. Not just with her ways, but she was premature, and my relationship wasn't the best. Oh, and the cost!

We're ok now, our relationship is fine, but I lost many years thinking I was a crap parent. She's 17.

I'm finding 2 a big challenge.

13 to 15

Definitely 14-16!!!!

11 - early teens. Absolutely. "Terrible twos "was hard but nothing in comparison.

14-22

DC dependent but 14-17 being the peak.

Good question!
I struggled with newborn phases with all three but nothing beats my daughter aged 14-17 (ongoing) being so rude and difficult

Only on MN do I hear people saying teens, they either have really unpleasant teenagers or they've forgotten those early years I think! Primary is definitely a sweet spot, but I enjoyed teenage years too, mine didn't turn into Kevin, interesting to talk to, I had my own life and hobbies. Babies and toddlers were the worst stage for me, that complete lack of freedom, chained to them, slave to a routine, the fear of another sleep progression.

In real life most people I know talk about the challenges of babies and toddlers way more, by teens most parents I know are doing much more of their own thing. But it's one of those MN quirks, like not liking en-suites and hot tubs, most other people seem to! There's a lot of enjoying scaremongering too.

*regression!

12-16 with DD1 and from 15 with DD2. She is 16 now, not sure when things will improve! The baby years were tiring because they have a 15 month age gap and I often cried through sheer exhaustion but at least I wasn’t worried sick about them.

On the bright side, ages 3 to 12 were lovely and DD1 is now lovely again most of the time at 17.

My teens are lovely our issues were from other peoples vile spawn. 13 year old girls can be brutal…lucky if you swerved that we did with dd1 dd2 was not so lucky…Now we in the pushing boundaries with clothes and partying with dd2. But she’s lovely and great fun so it’s not too bad!

Hmm no i dont agree. Everyone irl says teens are the hardest ime and most on this thread saying babies admit they haven’t experienced the teenage years yet so could say the same that they dont know what having teens is like 🤷‍♀️ depends on the kids though mine have sen and yes I’ve definitely found things harder now they are older.

1. Became very flouncy, argumentative, uncooperative etc for about 6 months. Had been a sweet natured child, I think it must have been the first stirrings of puberty causing the upset. After that, reverted to being nice again, and the teen years were ok on the whole. Now is a charming adult.

@ConfusedConfuse I saw a post of yours this morning where you talked about being 35 so I assume you're not out of your parenting journey yet either? You can disagree all you like, and I have absolutely no disillusions that it depends on the child (and parent), and SEN will be a different experience altogether, but MN loves to scare "young" (earlier in the journey) mums. They relish in it in fact. I see this conversation a lot and it just doesn't reflect what I see in real life.

16/17 for dd who was undiagnosed autistic and went
Into burnout and now she is diagnosed is improving at 18&1/2

Ds. Been pretty
Mellow and easy all his
Life. Maybe 16 as he is challenging us more but he is still much easier and straightforward.

Message should have stated saying when child was 9. Don't know what happened there!

15-16 dc1
13-14 dc2

Just attitude was the issue. Baby, toddler and childhood was a doddle.

Now they're 19 and 24 and are amazing adults. I may not have got much right in my life, but I got these two right!

Obviously different for everyone but 14-17 here as well ... and we were "lucky", no drugs, sex, truancy or other serious issues, just back chat and rudeness ... thank fully all over once he reached 18. The baby/toddler years were probably the easiest of my life ... but I had a very easy going baby who slept most of the time and was very chilled out. And I stuck at one child 😆

Hard for different reasons, physically hard , it was the early months and years, relentless and boring at times. For emotional hardness and ultimately the hardest for me , mid to late teens-becoming independent, making own choices, not needing you, having to make their own mistakes, worrying about their future, out with friends you don't know. That stage did my head in at times.