I had great newborns. My one son nearly did me in at age 16. He was a total a**. He is a great 23 year old and a year ago he apologist for his awful behavior. My other son never gave me any problems.

My kids are only 3 and 4, but unless one of my kids dies, it’s impossible to imagine anything being harder than the newborn phase. Those first 4 months with each (one bad sleeper, one good sleeper but I had PPD) were I would say 10 times harder than anything I’ve experienced in parenting since.

I think it’s just me - I need a lot of sleep (ideally 9 hours) and basically cannot function when I’m sleep deprived. It’s literal torture for me. We sleep trained both at 4 months and everything got better. Two toddlers? Comparatively a walk in the freaking park. And I have a climber!

Even if we end up dealing with drug addiction, suicidal kids, bullying, teen pregnancy - at least I’d be getting enough sleep to function.

2 years old and 18-19 years old. Boys at least.

I found 12-13 to be extremely easy.

Absolutely agree it’s parent and kid personality dependent. My sample size so far is small (oldest is only 5) but so far I’ve far 12-18 months the absolute worst, maybe because I had daredevil kids who would make for the most dangerous thing as fast as they could toddle. Hovering was so exhausting. But still, I suspect the teen years will be worse for me; I struggled with teenagers when I was one myself. Good luck to everyone going through a hard age for your family!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nothing compares to newborns in terms of sheer horror.

But 11 was really hard (my kid hit puberty early). 12 has been great though!

I had easy babies and truly loved every day of infancy.

Pure hell started at 15 for my older, 14 for my youngest. Still waiting for it to end. Things are good with 18yo, still awful with 16yo.

You’re not allowed to have an easy baby AND easy teen years PP. That’s not fair to the rest of us who had pure hell babies. Lol

My friend had a pure hell baby who was a difficult toddler and defiant kid. The girl is entering puberty and sounds so hard and difficult. I’m sure the teen years will be bad as well. The kid came out crying and never stopped.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nothing compares to newborns in terms of sheer horror.

But 11 was really hard (my kid hit puberty early). 12 has been great though!

I had easy babies and truly loved every day of infancy.

Pure hell started at 15 for my older, 14 for my youngest. Still waiting for it to end. Things are good with 18yo, still awful with 16yo.

You’re not allowed to have an easy baby AND easy teen years PP. That’s not fair to the rest of us who had pure hell babies. Lol

My kids are teens now and it has been challenging, but the emotions and physicality of the baby years for me was still harder, especially my first.

In my 9 years of parenting, I think the hardest was still the constant vigilance of making sure the 18-month-old toddler didn't kill themselves when they have all the mobility and no self-preservation instincts. And yes I know the teenage years are coming and I guess I know they're going to be extremely hard, especially with my super stubborn strong-willed and independent older kid.

So much of it has to do with personality though it's been funny. My youngest is so much more chill and tries to have temper tantrums or little three nager moments and having already had a super stubborn older sibling very little things phase me

14+ for me. My daughter is now 19 and it’s better.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nothing compares to newborns in terms of sheer horror.

But 11 was really hard (my kid hit puberty early). 12 has been great though!

Hmm I didn’t get that at all. Newborns and actually all of infancy was wonderful, magical. I love babies and apparently had easy babies.

Op here. I also loved the baby years. Sure, I was tired but I loved those baby years.

The stroller years were the happiest and most difficult period. When I see someone with one I am so glad I am no longer in that phase.

Anonymous wrote:Nothing compares to newborns in terms of sheer horror.

But 11 was really hard (my kid hit puberty early). 12 has been great though!

Hmm I didn’t get that at all. Newborns and actually all of infancy was wonderful, magical. I love babies and apparently had easy babies.

Anonymous wrote:Nothing compares to newborns in terms of sheer horror.

But 11 was really hard (my kid hit puberty early). 12 has been great though!

I had easy babies and truly loved every day of infancy.

Pure hell started at 15 for my older, 14 for my youngest. Still waiting for it to end. Things are good with 18yo, still awful with 16yo.

Anonymous wrote:The first year was the hardest because of the sleep deprivation. The rest of it was doable because I could get a decent night's sleep.

And my experience was totally different. I had some kind of unicorn baby who just magically slept through the night practically from birth and we truly never experienced sleep deprivation. Our hardest parenting years were in middle school.

Anonymous wrote:The first year was the hardest because of the sleep deprivation. The rest of it was doable because I could get a decent night's sleep.

there’s a lot of truth to this!

my kid got awful colds every three weeks that kept everyone awake with the coughing until he was well into K. That was HARD.