Older mums are super fond of letting newer mums know how much harder it gets with kids. It usually happens when a mum is complaining about her ratshit toddler or her arsehole pre-schooler – an older mum will step in with a well-timed, ‘Just you wait! It gets worse!’ Because that’s exactly what someone wants to hear when they’re having a hard time: ‘there’s no light at the end of this tunnel, the next 15 years of your life are going to suck, please cherish it‘.
These people always want to let younger parents know they have nothing to complain about because what they’re dealing with right now is SUPER EASY, y’all! Little kids, little problems, big kids, big problems etc. etc. How helpful and supportive, thank you so much. #sarcasmfont
So let me explain why their argument is wrong, in my opinion – and why you simply can’t compare the parenting ability/stamina of parents with little kids to parents with big kids:
When you first become a parent you are like a tub of lard, sloth person who’s never moved in his or her life but when that baby arrives you’re told to get up and sprint for 200 metres.
If you’ve never moved your body before, that’s going to be really hard. Impossible. You’re just not built to do it. There’ll be some people who’ll almost not make it, they’ll stop at the halfway mark, vomit their guts up, limp over the finish line and pass out. DONE.
Some people might cope better because they have more favourable conditions. They might have a nice tailwind, picking them up and carrying them forward. And just so we don’t get too confused here, when I say “tailwind”, I mean a kid who loves to sleep and eat. You know; a potato baby who lets you rest and generally enjoy life.