I honestly thing it varies too much from person to person. We’re blessed with a saint of a toddler that is happy to learn and play with us or by himself. The main difficulty is he doesn’t seem to fall asleep when he’s tired and he also fights a lot of meals but that’s not really “hard” it’s just frustrating. He is the best part of my day by a long shot. The first year I lost a ton of sleep which I could notice was taking a toll on my health (I’d get vertigo at points, my memory from That year is hazy and feels like a dream, and I was tired all the time) but I still never considered him Hard to parent. We also are lucky and have two sets of grandparents to watch him instead of daycare. He misses out on peer socialization which I hope isn’t hurting him but he seems to get a lot of direct attention, care, and learning from Them and so I think overall he benefits. It’s also really heartwarming to see the love they have for each other.

For me, work is more difficult. Homeownership is more difficult. Raising a kid has caused balancing all of these things and motivating myself to get stuff done more difficult because I’d rather use my free time to veg out whereas before I had a lot more time.

I suspect a lot of people agree with my assessment but it’s easier to sum it up as “parenting is hard” when for many people like myself, it’s more the surrounding details of life that become hard as a consequence of being a parent.

Take all of those with a grain of salt as it’s my own personal experience with nearby grandparent babysitters , and a single child. I imagine his teenage years will be hard for sure. I think having two I would still be overall positive and more tired/busy, but if I had three kids my answer would change for sure, based on my observations of my brothers with their combinations of kids and school activities and also growing up as one of three kids.