Do you think parenting gets easier or harder as your kids get older?

Question

And why?

Answer 1

Parenting is fairly easy providing you start of on the right foot and lay the foundation stones to make a happy family. You must have a proper structured routine, hat good talks about what they do and what their views are. If you allow your child to more or less care for them self then chances are you’re in for a hard time later.

Answer 2

Neither.  The challenges are just different.

All the best.

Answer 3

when they are young it is physically tyring, as they grow up it is more mentally tyring!!

Answer 4

You spend the first 3 years teaching them to walk and talk and the next twenty years teaching them to sit down and shut up.

Answer 5

So much harder for us .When the twins were babies things seemed so simple then as they grew we found Thomas had severe autism he is also non verbal and still in nappies the twins are ten now, and sometimes i feel really dreadful when i change his nappy and think i thought all this would have been over with years ago, i look down at him lying on the floor and Tom is still like the baby i had ten years ago.. Please don't get me wrong i love him to bits but i as a Mum do find it tough sometimes, and Kylie bless her is just a very loving laid back girl who takes the Miss Attitude to limits sometimes but shes nearly 11 so we expect that she is being a girl and so grown up for her age.. being a parent is tough sometimes But we doe our best ..don't we ?

Answer 6

not easier or harder.. just different.

Answer 7

When they are old enough to go out by themselves is a lot more worrying

Answer 8

It doesn't get any easier, or harder. You'll always have the worry even when they fly the nest..

Answer 9

I think there are pros and cons to having your child young and older.  With older kids they can do more on there own.  They have independence.  Wtih that independence comes other things.  They have to start making choices you cant be there to do it all for them.  With younger ones they are depending on you.  I have a teenage daughter and I am due to have a baby in October.  So I am going to be going through both.

Answer 10

It's not either, just different. They are older and need different  rules and many thing you little wanted. So my vote goes to easier as they got older

Answer 11

its the same but different if you know what i mean

Answer 12

hard at first, late nights early mornings etc.

nice when theyr toddlers and just start school and do sweet things without realising

Hard again when theyre teenagers and say they hate you and that your a **** parent, you;; remember just how thriilled you were when they learnt to talk!

Lovely when they're older and come visit and your proud of the person that they've become.

When your old you'll be glad you had kids as it'll be their turn to look after and support you the way you did to them.

In general I think it will get easier.

Answer 13

Much harder as they get older.  In a way it is less full on because you aren't with the children 24 hours a day.   But the issues get much bigger and more complex and they learn just how to work you and push your buttons.

Answer 14

Easier in some ways but harder in others. It's lovely to see them gaining in independence and confidence but it comes with a price. The more they grow, the closer you get to the time when you're going to have to let them go and stand on their own 2 feet. I dread that time and will never be sure that we've done everything we could to equip them. I find myself clinging to every moment of their childhood. If I could, I would keep them with me for ever and never let them go. But in my heart of hearts I know my job is to love them with all my might because we only get to borrow them for a little while.

Answer 15

Harder

As they get older so do you

I'm a Shadow of mi former self i tells ya

The little swines'll have me in an early grave

Answer 16

It definitely gets more difficult as they get older and move outside the protection of a home environment designed to ensure their health, safety and development of good values and into the sphere of the influence of friends that may not have parents who think the way you do.

All one can do is reinforce values, keep communication as open and honest as teenagers allow and trust that what you've tried to instill will stand the challenge of people with different views.  Prayer also helped me.  I did all the best that I could and left the rest to God.  My son is grown now and doing well, but the late teen years were very difficult.

Answer 17

I think that parenting get harder once your little boy or girl are growing up and the hardest thing you could ever do is let go

Answer 18

I hate to say, "IT DOES GET HARDER". when they get older. When they are little, you have more control on what they eat , when they sleep or what they wear.  When they become teens, Its, I need, need, need. I need money to go to the movies with my friends.

When they become adults and move out on their own and thinking they can support themselves. They still depend on mom and dad... Can you help me, i cant pay for my car insurance this month or I am $300 short on my rent, Can I borrow $30 for gas, (Borrow, Ya right, like we will see it).

So, you see it is much harder and more expensive when they grow up. I know some will say, Well don't help them, Come on, as a parent, you love your children no matter how old they are and you will help them, it's just what good caring parents do. We also put a revolving door on our home, because you know for sure they will move back in then back out again.

Answer 19

Definitely harder.  My mother used to say "little kids - little problems, big kids - big problems."  The worries increase exponentially when they get out on their own.  You may be walking around with them in the middle of the night when they're little, but at least you know where they are and what they're doing.  But the fun times seem to increase exponentially too, so there's a trade-off.  All said, I stressed out over them the most as teenagers, but I enjoyed them the most then too. You just carry on.

Answer 20

I agree with the first answer. When they are little it's the whole teaching them that that is wrong, no, that is wrong too, then dealing with the tantrums and the stubborness and the not understnading. But you have their innocence to make up for it. When they are older they arn't so innocent, they can argue back properly, still have tantrums and be stubborn and they can last a lot longer with it! Talking about it like that makes parenting sound like a long haul! It's much more fun if you do the whole favourite memory of your little one kind of thing!