Quote:
Originally Posted by undercoverbrother
Mine are 18/20
It isn't easier or better or harder or worse when they are older.
It is different.
It is still a challenge at time they are just different challenges.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Lubicon
Great point. For us the early years (pre school) were the easy years. Then it was just busy. Not stressful but busy. Grade 12 and university were the hardest years mentally for us hands down. Not even close in our case, those later years were absolutely the hardest to get through.
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Mine are 18/16 right now. I think it's a million, trillion, billion times easier now. Stakes are higher with parties, drinking, driving (not drinking
and driving, of course), them out late is unsettling versus everyone tucked in their beds, etc., so I'm not saying it's a breeze, but it is vastly easier and it's so much nicer having a lot of experiences that are peer-like versus just running around after small kids.
When kids are babies/toddlers, literally every single time they have to go to the bathroom, eat, bathe...
do anything...it's your problem and you're involved. You sure you don't have some sort of amnesia about how much tiring work was involved in having small kids? Every activity you had to drive them to. Every time they wanted to hang with a friend you were involved. Getting dressed, doing their laundry, cooking for them, cleaning up after them, etc. Everything you did was because of some effort on your part. Did you maybe have a SAHW that did the lion's share of the work or maybe you had super involved parents that assisted with the little kid stuff?
I would honestly jump off a bridge if I had to go back to small kids. I literally couldn't do it - there's no gas left in the tank for all that fkn around.
Now at 16/18 my kids rule. My daughter even came to wing night with my posse the other week. We had so much fun (she's known them forever and interacts with them in a super cool way). My son and I go to car meets, car shows and he's enjoying detailing cars so much he's started a little business with his buddy. This is all rad stuff. Oh plus my son is getting big (he's probably about 6' now) and it's his goal to kick my ass. I horse around with him a bit and have some fun, but every once in a while I have to old-man strength him to show him who's the boss and it's hilarious. This weekend he was trying to get me to "hold his pocket" and was taking swipes at me while I was laying on the couch. I finally jumped up and was charlie horsing him until he yelled out to his mom to say "I'm a bitch." Fk yeah. Good luck doing that with your seven year old and not ending up in an uncomfortable meeting somewhere.
The other perk is all their friends are super cool and fun. I love the energy and vibe of young people. Obviously I stay out of their way for the most part as I don't want to be the 'hey fellow kids' dude, but I do get to spend some time with them and it's always great. Late- and mid-teen people get along super well with Gen X compared to the more hierarchical relationship Boomers and Gen X had in the 90s IMO. Like, I'm not saying my friends and I are so cool or anything, but the kids totally accept us and enjoy our company in a peerish way (in the right contexts) that is awesome.
All experiences are different based on personalities, family dynamics, external stresses, etc. and something could change in my house that turns all this on its head in a heartbeat, but in general older kids are so much easier, more fun and better than young kids that there isn't even a comparison.
Plus, mine are still snuggly sometimes. Best of all worlds. I'll be a disaster when they leave...I love having them around soooooo much.