Does anyone else find parenting exhausting

[ItsSoHardD]

Does anyone find parenting SO hard? Like the hardest thing you’ve ever done? I read a thread the other day and people were saying how easy it was, especially so when their partners werent around. Then there is me barely coping, theres just so much to DO. It’s never ending, cleaning, cooking, washing, trying to do fun days out, school stuff, appointments 😓😭 is it normal to find it this hard? can anyone else relate?

100% the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Ever. I don’t know who these people are who find it easy! Maybe they have just one child who slept through the night from 2 weeks and has a sunny and subservient character, never tantrumming or pushing boundaries, cheerily tidying up when told and staying in their rooms until 8am every day listening to their Yoto players and toilet training with no drama and quietly sitting using cutlery at the dinner table.

The rest of us - yeah. It’s hard. And sometimes not enjoyable at all.

Yes I find it very hard too

No

No, no-one else finds it hard. You are the only one lol 😂

There was literally a post the other day about how easy it is!

Thats why im asking if anyone can relate to it actually being incredibly hard

I think it's very hard to convey the feeling of relentlessness and that's the hardest thing with parenting. The individual tasks themselves are nothing, it's the sheer amount of times that they have to be done that makes it hard.

Yes of course because some will find it easy. Some will find it hard.

Can you partner relate to it? Do you balance with work too?

Yes, of course it’s hard. You are raising someone to be a productive & functioning member of society. Not everyone bothers with that bit though! 😆

Exhausting. Relentless. Heartbreaking. Good fun.

@ItsSoHardD why did they think it was easy?

That’s a great summary

Yep, not the hardest thing I’ve done but really hard. Both my kids have SEN and if they don’t sleep through the night then it’s so much more difficult. Actually the battling the ‘system’ is much more difficult than the actual parenting.

Absolutely !

You can’t compare because you don’t know other people’s circumstances. If it’s hard for you, it’s hard. I have no regrets and think my daughter is the best thing that’s happened to me but with her being a terrible sleeper even as a nearly 4yo, no family around, work, husband with a chronic health issue and going through perimenopause, I find it f-ING hard.

Well of course it is. I can’t think of a soul that wouldn’t agree with you.

It's feckin horrendous at times. And I only have her solo for two days a week as the rest of the time she's at nursery or I have my husband/other family around.
For me it all hinges on sleep. If we all sleep well then it's a positive spiral of healthy home cooked meals, taking my vitamins and time in the evenings to chat to my husband/read/plan the weeks ahead.
If we have a bad night or even worse a series of bad nights, I feel absolutely desperate to run away quite soon in. The negative spiral of crappy, easy food, feeling glued to the sofa, the dread of what the next night might bring, etc.
Oh and illness. If you and/or they are unwell it's the pits.
Its all a LOT harder than I expected it to be.

Oh god the bloody "system" is against you from day one. Battling that is a whole full time job in itself just to access the basics that many just take for granted. I can see how others with lots of support and no extra needs to cater for could find parenting easier.

For us we are just surviving which brings it's own grief that you rarely get a chance to even enjoy your children because it's so relentlessly hard just keeping them alive let alone happy.

There’s good days and bad days, but let’s just say we’re sticking with 1 😂

well there was a whole thread saying it was easy, and at least @ktopfwcvon here. both opinions are valid and reasonable

Yes. Hardest thing I’ve ever done. Best thing I’ve ever done but also the most difficult and at times with very little reward.

well we went to a craft style event today and I had someone ask (hopefully jokingly) if od given my twins caffeine. I laughed and said ha, imagine! then he told them AGAIN to lie still and I told him welcome to my life! and they're the NT kids! so, yeah.

I think it depends on the kids, mine are feral so yes, it’s bloody hard

No. But I’m also not raising my children in the way a lot of modern parenting seems to be done.

I don’t negotiate everything, I don’t beg, and I don’t feel the need to surround them with mountains of plastic toys, plates and cups or constantly be out entertaining them.

As you said, the planning part can be hard: loads of appointments, nursery runs, school runs, etc. to deal with. But that has nothing to do with my kids themselves. That’s just the weird system we’re living in.