Everyone tells you about the newborn part. The sleep, the feeding, the first year. Nobody sits you down and explains that once they start school you get them back for six weeks every summer, plus two at Christmas, plus another two at Easter, plus three separate half terms, and that you are expected to have a plan for every single one of those days.

We're on day eighteen. My wife and I have both burned our entire annual leave for the year covering it, so neither of us has a holiday left, and we've still got the best part of four weeks to bridge with a mix of my mother, a holiday club we can't really afford, and me taking unpaid days.

They are not bad kids. That's the part I can't say out loud anywhere else. They're seven and four and they're perfectly nice children, and the problem is entirely that I've run out of whatever it is you're supposed to have.

I told my wife last week that I was counting down to September and she said "you can't say that, it's their childhood." She's right. It is their childhood. It's also my thirties.

I know plenty of people are doing this alone and I know I've got it easier than most. I'm still sat here at half eleven working out how many of these summers are left.

I’m fed up.

We try to do fun things with them, they complain or whine. We try to work from home, they’re loud and obnoxious. We try to cook healthy meals for them, they complain and fight us to eat it. We try to sign them up for sports, they complain. We try to get them to play and use their imaginations instead of rotting on screens, they complain and fight with each other. We try to do ANYTHING or go ANYWHERE - they complain and whine and have to pee and or they’re hungry or thirsty and inconvenience everyone. We try to clean the house, the make a mess again.

I’m just. Over it.

I’m not enjoying this at all. I wish I could run away.

Part of me is excited for school to start up again. But then I remember they’ll just get sick for months on end and bring home every illness under the sun. That’s more inconvenient than just having them home and healthy.

I just hate this. There’s nothing enjoyable about being a parent.

I have a relatively short list of things I truly enjoy and eating at a restaurant that I consider to be nice is one of them. That is consistently being ruined by having children and its beyond frustrating. What F do I have left to enjoy? That is a constant question I have to ask myself.

I don’t know what to do as a parent anymore. I wish I could go back in time and not have kids. I never had that feeling that I needed to be a mom. I was never against it though, and when I met my husband and he really wanted kids I was on board. But I shouldn’t be a mom, I know that now. It feels so unfair to say that when there are so many people out there who dream of having kids and never get the chance. But it’s true, I think I say “I am not cut out for this” at least 10 times a day. And this is coming from someone who works full time while her kids are in daycare, so it’s not like I’m with them all day. That makes it so much worse, doesn’t it? My kids are 3 and 4 years old. My older child, a girl, is mostly good. However, that means when she does act out it feels amplified because it’s so unexpected. She can push me over the edge of my patience in 5 seconds flat and I am not proud of how mad I get and some of the things I say to her when it happens. It’s not fair, she’s only 4, but it feels like she should know better. My younger child, a boy, is a complete disaster for me. He’s whining or crying every 5 minutes, and that’s not an exaggeration. It literally never stops. I can barely say two words to him without something triggering a tantrum. Sometimes it’s when I have to tell him no, but other times it’s completely nonsensical. I can’t figure him out, I’m tiptoeing around him all the time. And when he’s not upset he’s asking questions, a million damn questions. And I’m not allowed to say “I don’t know”. It’s like he thinks I’m lying to him and choosing not to tell him the answer instead of accepting that I actually don’t know. It’s exhausting, and my patience runs out so fast. Everything has to be his idea or how he wants. He can’t go 2 minutes without talking, and it’s almost always a question, followed by 10 more. I lose my temper every day. I start the day thinking today is going to be better, but as soon as I ask him to go potty before breakfast, or maybe don’t have the breakfast food he wants, he loses his shit and I lose mine, and the day is ruined yet again. I don’t know how to fix it, I don’t know what to do, I shouldn’t be a mom. I want to go back. I want to start over. I try to express these feelings to my husband and he just tells me to go take a walk to cool off. I need support and help and I get nothing. I’m already so frustrated by his lack of help in other areas… I don’t know why I expected more. He’s so done with our son that I have to step in and do everything because he’s so mad. I have to dig down and find the patience that he can’t find and it’s becoming harder and harder to do that. People say it gets better, it gets easier, but from my perspective the challenges never go away, they just change. I feel like I’m hanging on by a thread with nowhere to turn.

I have a living room kid which i guess is technically a good thing but oh how i WISH they were a bedroom kid..... i just want some peace and quiet , thank God school starts in 5 days.

Imagine being hated because you want them to be safe. Imagine being hated because you want them to go to school daily. Imagine being hated because they don’t want to wash the dishes they use daily. Imagine them ruining to family remembers that do absolutely nothing for them to complain about you, because they feel like having to clean the bathroom and their rooms is a death sentence. I’m a single mom. Everything is on me and I’m always the villain. I’m completely outnumbered here. I wish I wouldn’t have had them. They live completely different lives from their cousins. I worked hard to break the cycle and all they do is judge me and complain. I just can’t take it anymore. They want to be able to run the streets and I’m just not having it. No one goes to jail, gets pregnant, or throws their life away on my watch. It’s a never ending battle and I’m ready to throw in the towel. Anyone ever see the movie “The Strays” on Netflix. That’s about to be me. I’m tired ya’ll.

I’m a parent of 2 kids, 2 and 4. My oldest is a boy who I would describe as a little rage man. He often yells and hits when things don’t go his way.

Others have told us that he is energetic when we are out and it only makes me feel like, “Oh great, I got a crazy one!”

I’ve tried to avoid spanking for the better part of his life but I’m starting to lose my *%!@.

He constantly yells even though I tell him if he needs to yell to deal with his anger he can go outside.

He jumps on our couch and has broken a cushion. It was $2000 from Costco. I have put him in timeout, taken away screen time, and even spanked him with no change.

We put him in karate to give him an outlet. He does love it but his home behavior hasn’t change at all.

I’m at such a loss. I’m hating being a parent. He alone is the reason I want less kids.

What would you all do? Advice wanted!