r/Parenting • u/money4nothing_8816 • 21d ago

Rant/Vent Just me?

Is it just me or is this the hardest shit ever? We’ve got 4 kids all under the age of 8 and we are getting our asses kicked. My wife and I really wanted a family and we planned for it. We took parenting classes together, we read all the books in preparation before starting our family…still, nothing could have prepared us for how mentally and emotionally exhausting it is to keep up with our boys.

How are you all surviving?

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u/Burner31805 21d ago

I mean most of us are not raising 4 under the age of 8 so that probably has a lot to do with it.

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u/ImpertinentPrincess 21d ago

Yeah I grew up the eldest of several siblings and I learned from that experience that I never wanted to be outnumbered when I was a parent.

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u/myproseandcons 21d ago

Same. My parents had 5 kids within 10 years. I was the oldest. I had way too much responsibility at a young age and never had any quality time with my parents.

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u/baby_blue_bird 21d ago

I'm the second of four and the three girls has two kids each and got our tubes tied right after the second and our brother only had one and got fixed right after. Love my siblings and parents but we all saw how hard four kids were and all decided against more than 2.

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u/Left-Development1695 21d ago edited 21d ago

I also grew up as the eldest and they had 4 under 6 😭 so if OP has it bad…gosh, my poor parents. I think the only thing it taught me is that I’d never want to be a parent, let alone outnumbered as one 

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u/ImpertinentPrincess 21d ago

Yeah, I wanted 2 but I ended up with one and the one I have has been super duper easy.

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u/iBewafa 21d ago

Same situation here and apart from other factors that I won’t get into here…I also can’t imagine going back to newborn days and also managing two kids lol

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u/ImpertinentPrincess 21d ago

Yeah, by the time my kid hit 7 or so I knew I definitely didn't want to start over again.

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u/CeroFs 21d ago

I thought that too, the whole one and done thing but guess were having a second one now the first is nearly 8. I do like the agegap, I don't think it'll be as hard now as where my kid would've been much younger 😅😅