What age did you find most difficult to raise?

[Mimi1313]

I've always wondered what the hardest years are! To those experienced parents please share your expertise and let me know what age you found the hardest to raise and why?

Age 3-4. Toddler level rage, but they now understand they’re misbehaving and do it anyway thanks to poor impulse control.

Currently finding the teen years difficult, in a not ever knowing what the right thing to do is. Early years were hard due to lack of sleep, but I found it easier to have convictions about how I wanted to parent.

Girls at 14-16. No doubt.

I'm not actually raising them now, of course, but I'm finding their adulthood the hardest.
MN hasn't helped. I'm on pins constantly worrying about my place in their lives and what I should/shouldn't do or say and what my role is/isn't in their lives. And of course I still want to protect them but can't actually do anything because I have no control. Everything has, rightly, to be their decision and is none of my business.

I'm also now of the age that they think I can't possibly know stuff and it makes me feel small and useless.

4DC here but oldest is only 7. Of the first 7 years I find age 1-2 the hardest. Can’t let them out of your sight, they are always trying to find new ways to kill themselves. They don’t have enough words to communicate well so get frustrated. Thank goodness for their naps at this age!!

I'm probably in the minority but 0-6 months. My babies were Velcro babies and I just spent the whole time feeling touched out and screamed at! Once I could put them down for a bit, even if I was next to them, I felt such a relief! I also loved when they started walking cos it meant I could put them down a bit more (in safe places but still more than i could before!).

My oldest is only 7 so that could all change!

I'd say under 2. Once they can talk and walk and are toilet trained it all gets a lot easier. Mine are 16 and 18 now so not fully adult yet but I do think it will be hard for the reasons @saraclara says once they are.

The non sleeping years - I had one that slept well, one about average (didn't sleep through until 12 months but by then it was down to one or two wakings and 5:30am start to the day), and one who took hours to fall asleep and couldn't stay asleep for more than 90 minutes unless in full contact with my body, until he was three years old.

My eldest is nearly 18.

No average teen or toddler or anything in between (specific special needs, health issues, mental health crises not included) is as hard as the baby-toddler who really doesn't let you sleep.

Teenage years without a shadow of a doubt. Sooooo hard x

Around 18m to 2yo was the hardest for me. Old enough to be "naughty" and too young to reason with. Teens have been easy for me so far (eldest is 17).

Toddler years, without doubt

For me its always been age 3, just that bit too big to over rule, impossible to reason with...... A bit bigger or smaller is much easier

1-3. DS calmed down a bit at 3 and is now much easier at 4. DD is 19 months and in full wailing like a banshee mode as she can't say what she wants properly, looking for new ways to injure herself throughout the day. It's relentless once they can move but have no common sense or fear. I'd never wish the time away but I'm looking forward to being able to use the toilet unaccompanied again in a year or so.

No, I'm with you, I found 0 to 6 months the hardest by far. The lack of sleep, the pnd, the anxiety, the worry. I enjoy parenting more the more robust they get and the less fragile!

I'm a weirdo because I hate the newborn phase but love 2 year olds 🤣

Newborn and baby without a doubt. The sleepless nights,the wailing and crying, wiping shitty arses and mopping up sick. The sheer tedium.
Give me teens any day

Toddlers here. I much preferred the teenage years.

Girl 14-16 was genuinely awful.

Baby and toddler years I actually enjoy.

I'm only 3 years in and so fully aware that I potentially have more to come but age 3 is the hardest so far. DD was a very passive baby - slept, fed, yes we had rough times but on the whole she was easy (and I'm not a baby fan!) But my god she's made up for it as a pre schooler. Its a wonderful age in some aspects (on good days she's hilarious, great company) but it can just change if I breathe the wrong way it seems!

Summed up my feelings on age 3 perfectly!

Late teens. Flying the nest or rather, crowbarring them out the door. My lot are probably atypical in that regard, but don't seem to want to push themselves into full adulthood. (I couldn't bloody wait to move out at their ages!)

The younger years were challenging in smaller, fleeting, fixed-with-hug-and-a-kiss ways.

I’m going to roll out the traditional cliche that they are all hard / easy.

Every stage is new, and every new stage requires something different from you. A baby is new and needs brand new things from you, then they change into toddlers just as you’ve cracked the baby stage and they now need to move, talk, learn at a rapid rate….then when you’ve got the hang of that…:it’s all change again. Rinse and repeat, and I’m not sure it ever ends - every stage demands new things of you even when they are adults and that thing is setting them free to make their own mistakes while you sit worrying at home!

All the stages have their ups and downs. I guess that’s what the journey of motherhood is all about

Year 6 and Year 7. Friendship issues, hated eachother.

We are up to preteen and I'm guessing it will be age 14-16 based on how many random strangers have fallen over themselves to tell me.

I never mind them saying but it's happened about 5 times at least in different places and therefore must be a "thing"

I have a 2 and 3 year old right now (and older preteen DSDs who have been in my life since they were 3 and 5) so haven't experienced everything up to 12. And by far the hardest for me was 0-6 months. One was a dream baby and one hard-core but the sleep anxiety I felt through that period was like nothing else. My two toddlers drive me round the bed at the moment but they're in bed at 6.30pm and sleep 12 hours so I would take that 100x over than the newborn phase again. I appreciate I'm about the hit the teen years with my DSDs and I was a vile teen!