Which is the hardest and least enjoyable age to parent ?

[Bibadoabo]

Which is the hardest and least enjoyable age to parent ?

Toddlers - tedious and boring
Teenagers - absolute bloody nightmare

Best age 7 - 11 loved those years

With ds24 the teenage years were very hard he was an angel before! Ds18 definitely early years as he never slept and that was so hard. He has been a joy as a teenager!

0 - 6m for me. Never again!!

Hardest is when they're grown ups.
You can't make it better any more: a kiss and a Smartie just don't cut it. And sometimes their problems are just so big.

For me, 18 months - around 3 years was really hard. Lonely, physical hard graft, relentless and poor sleep on and off which made tackling the toddler years really tough. Absolutely loved 7 onwards. Eldest is now 13 and although he’s a bit stroppy and we have a way to go. I am now well rested and I can reason with him. Just!

2 boys.

Yes, they bask in it. I’ve never understood why women get a kick out of telling other women “just you wait”.

I was going to say this ! We cannot fix their problems so easily .

See, I was the reverse - I loved the first couple of years of each of my children and I miss it sometimes. I love other people's babies and toddlers as well. they are just fun.

Everything that upset the baby could be solved with a cuddle, a nappy change or a breastfeed. It was so simple! Physically fairly demanding - not a lot of down time - but I had a sling and as long as the baby was attached s/he was happy.

This was NOT true of the teen years - nothing could make it better for them. There were heartbreaks and bullying and exam meltdowns and hormonal disregulation all over the place and I couldn's fix it, I couldn't make them feel better, and the wanted simultaneously to never speak to me and to be comforted and helped by me.

The teen years were the most challenging for me without a doubt!

So far I'm finding young adult the hardest - maybe because the difficulties of the other stages have faded and I am left with memories of the good bits. I'm glad to be there to support them as they navigate life's ups and downs and the big decisions but it can be draining and worrying - especially when you think they are being naïve but have to step back and let them work it out for themselves, often the the hard way. Last six months feel like a roller-coaster in that regard, so maybe clouding my judgement.
Best stage was the primary school years - seemed idyllic now looking back. I can't remember any bad bits, even the bits I thought were bad at the time (managing school run with work/endless clubs in the evening to ferry them to) - I have fond memories of. Wish I had appreciated it more at the time.

Newborn for me. I had postnatal anxiety, wanted to breastfeed and couldn't, worried about DS's sleep, worried about everything! I didn't find him easy to soothe and found it hard to communicate with him. Once he started talking, it was sooo much easier and since then I keep thinking that every stage is my favourite! He's coming up to 18 now and has just been a dream to parent. Not that we haven't had our tough times and my anxiety has never fully gone away but he's always been such a brilliant person, and so reasonable.

I want to add that DD wasn't a horrible teen. It was other teens who were horrible to DD that caused the problems. DD was a sad and depressed teen and caused me a lot of sleepless nights.

Newborn to 6yrs old. Once she was more independent and could play outside with her friends, it was smooth sailing after that.

Being the parent to an adult…so 18 plus…perhaps up 35!

Nobody tells you when you are planning a baby, that one day you will be the parent of an another adult, would be the best contraceptive around if they did…😆

The three worst, in order from least to most awful:

11
8
3.5

3.5 was about 10 times worse than 11 or 8.

6-7 is the best age, imo, but all the others, except the above, are lovely in their own way.

Does pregnancy count? Because I HATED pregnancy, no parenting stage since has been that bad!

Oh god yes I hated pregnancy too.

Tbh, out of pregnancy, labour, and the newborn stage, I would say labour was the best of the bunch. And that was excruciating!

My DCs are 20 and 22. I would say all stages have their benefits. The hardest work was definitely when I had a baby and a 2yo. I would say age 2-3 is probably the hardest - children of that age are highly mobile and are unlikely to be aware of dangers.

As a grandparent who looks after grandchildren.
2.5 to 3.5 is just a rollercoaster of tantrums and potty training and imo the hardest time.

My children were teenagers at the birth of social media so I can only imagine how difficult it must be to parent teenagers in today's world .

For me the most challenging time has been 18 to present .

It was a minefield working through heart breaks and the transformation from childhood to adulthood.
Two of them married men who have a lot of faults in my eyes but I am powerless to do anything and don't interfere.
Then when grandchildren arrived and I had to watch my beautiful daughters torn between work and children is heart breaking.
It just seems like everyday is tough. So much expected of young mothers now . Childcare is exorbitant and jobs are stressful . I have to detach from their struggles and remind myself I have done it all .......without the childcare and financial support my husband and I provide .

The toddler years for me. DD is 17 now and every year from about 4 onwards has been easy in comparison. Even in the depths of teenage "I hate everything", I preferred it to having an insane little goblin who could not be reasoned with.

I honestly think being a toddler must be horrible. You know exactly what you want, but either can't communicate it properly or can't understand why the big people won't let you have it. I think thats why we can't really remember out own toddlerhoods, we'd all be too angry about it to function!

Pretty much all my friends who have adult children (who are mostly in their 30s) are worrying ourselves sick about them (or our grandkids), for various reasons.
I honestly didn't expect this, as I'm sure my parents and PILs didn't worry like this once we were settled.

Life is SO much harder for their generation, and we're powerless to help, apart from financially (up to a point). And we all want to be able to give them advice to protect them from further stresses, but don't find ourselves able to do that without sounding critical and risking the relationships.

So yes, the person saying that we can't fix anything with a cuddle and a Smartie hits the nail on the head. It's awful being worried and powerless.

2-3 is really hard work. My eldest is almost 14 and I still say 2-3 is harder!
Nicest for me is 7-11 kind of age

I have 3 atm - oldest 11, youngest 3. For me 2-4 is the hardest so far . My 3 year old is far worse than my others- she’s a girl they are boys. But at 2/3 my oldest was a runner, absolutely exhausting never relaxing outside the house. After 4 I can actually sit