Why do I find it annoying when childfree people say they are tired?

[Anonymous]

This reminds me of a Twitter post I saw where a young woman complained about 8 hour workdays and how she didn't understand how people were expected to fit everything they wanted to do in their day around 8 hours of work and 8 hours of sleep. It was retweeted about a zillion times.

I think back to my childless days, and it's hard to comprehend having a third of every weekday and entire weekends to do whatever I want. We had so much free time that we took for granted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a childfree person I am bemused by parents complaining about how tired they are. This is literally why I didn't have kids--because they are exhausting. How is it that I knew this and so many apparently didn't?

I can only imagine your bemusement at the student loan crisis.

I mean, frankly, it just seems to me that people are either suckers, or live in this state of magical thinking, where it will all work out just fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This reminds me of a Twitter post I saw where a young woman complained about 8 hour workdays and how she didn't understand how people were expected to fit everything they wanted to do in their day around 8 hours of work and 8 hours of sleep. It was retweeted about a zillion times.

I think back to my childless days, and it's hard to comprehend having a third of every weekday and entire weekends to do whatever I want. We had so much free time that we took for granted.

“Eww, I have to be at work for 8 hours in a row?!”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I get more annoyed when my retired mother tells me she’s too busy to do something.

I should specify. Child-free adults literally have no experience on which to base an understanding of being a parent, except maybe that one time they had to leave happy hour early to take their dog out because their neighbor was away on vacation. My own mother worked full time from the time I was in kindergarten. Even then, she was a school librarian (aka a teacher who doesn’t grade papers) and I’m an executive at a large company and she had 1 kid while I have 2.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They go out all night and don’t get good sleep and complain they are tired. Or there is an inconvenience for a night and two. Try not getting a good night sleep for YEARS due to having young kids. I have had a decade of bad sleep.

Anyone else get annoyed about this?

I’m sure I was sometimes tired when I was childfree.

Childless people feel more pressure to be out and about doing things, so I can see how someone succumbing to that pressure could get as tired as someone just chilling inside with young kids. For example, many employers put more work on them. Most people who are childless now will eventually have kids, so they'll find out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They go out all night and don’t get good sleep and complain they are tired. Or there is an inconvenience for a night and two. Try not getting a good night sleep for YEARS due to having young kids. I have had a decade of bad sleep.

Anyone else get annoyed about this?

I’m sure I was sometimes tired when I was childfree.

Childless people feel more pressure to be out and about doing things, so I can see how someone succumbing to that pressure could get as tired as someone just chilling inside with young kids. For example, many employers put more work on them. Most people who are childless now will eventually have kids, so they'll find out.

Hahahahahahaha

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow, I was just venting on a parenting forum. I thought other parents would say how tired they were to be woken up multiple times per night or how they have to get woken up to then wake up earlier than the kids to get ready for work.

You might have gotten some sympathy if you had just said you are tired to be woken up multple times per night, but it's the unwarranted dig at childfree people that has earned you the snark.

How many do you have, 2 or 3? If someone with 4 or 5 kids posts they are annoyed when people with only 2 or 3 kids complain about being tired, they would deserve and get the same snark.

I have 3. That is why I haven’t slept well in a decade.

I am a little confused by this. I have 4 kids and they were definitely all sleeping through the night by age one, and most of them before that. Are they all 3 years apart and each didn't sleep through the night until age 3 to give you 10 solid years of night wakings?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I get more annoyed when my retired mother tells me she’s too busy to do something.

Yes. My young, retired ILs are too "busy" to cook a single dish to contribute to Thanksgiving.
Pre-kids I definitely had times with work where I was extremely exhausted so I can understand childless people being tired.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow, I was just venting on a parenting forum. I thought other parents would say how tired they were to be woken up multiple times per night or how they have to get woken up to then wake up earlier than the kids to get ready for work.

You might have gotten some sympathy if you had just said you are tired to be woken up multple times per night, but it's the unwarranted dig at childfree people that has earned you the snark.

How many do you have, 2 or 3? If someone with 4 or 5 kids posts they are annoyed when people with only 2 or 3 kids complain about being tired, they would deserve and get the same snark.

I have 3. That is why I haven’t slept well in a decade.

I am a little confused by this. I have 4 kids and they were definitely all sleeping through the night by age one, and most of them before that. Are they all 3 years apart and each didn't sleep through the night until age 3 to give you 10 solid years of night wakings?

NP. How old are your kids?

[Anonymous]

I have young kids so it wasn't that long ago that I was childless. I definitely remember being tired before I had kids. With kids, I am tired for longer periods because I don't have the opportunities to catch up on sleep like I did previously, but the notion that I never experienced fatigue before I had kids is false.

[Anonymous]

No. What is more annoying is the people with kids whose parents/in-laws watch their kids nearly more than they do. Then they complain how much work their kids are and how tired they are.

[Anonymous]

Seriously, you sound like a martyr or something.

I did so many more things as a child free person. Continuing education, all kinds of volunteer work, work/ overtime (often to cover for the people with kids, I might add), gym, plus my social life.

I was tired then, and I was *truly* always on the go. I’m tired now, but in a different way.

It’s not them, it’s you. Have you considered doing more things that fulfill you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow, I was just venting on a parenting forum. I thought other parents would say how tired they were to be woken up multiple times per night or how they have to get woken up to then wake up earlier than the kids to get ready for work.

You might have gotten some sympathy if you had just said you are tired to be woken up multple times per night, but it's the unwarranted dig at childfree people that has earned you the snark.

How many do you have, 2 or 3? If someone with 4 or 5 kids posts they are annoyed when people with only 2 or 3 kids complain about being tired, they would deserve and get the same snark.

I have 3. That is why I haven’t slept well in a decade.

No one force you to have three kids, stop whining.

[Anonymous]

The reason this bugs me sometimes is that I know for a fact that I did not truly appreciate how much free time I had before I had kids and wasted too much it not doing things I want to do now but REALLY don’t have time for. So I am more annoyed at the pre-kid me than I am at my currently kid-free friends/family.

And all you people who chose to have kids and complain that you don’t get free childcare from older people who already spent 18-x number of years raising you (and any siblings) and are now too busy because they are doing all the things they have been waiting to do since you were born, tough. You made your own bed.

[Anonymous]

Ha! I am sure I did this before I had kids and now I roll my eyes at my former self. Same for how busy I thought I was. Aside from real crunch periods dummy Ph.D. I have never been as tired or as busy as I am now as a working mom of 2. I really was unprepared for how long the interrupted nights would go - I have a child with special needs who is has sleep issues sometimes and some unrelated medical issues that mess up all our sleep lately. I also end up working a lot at night to deal with kid stuff during the day.

But I would do it again in a heartbeat. Wouldn’t you?