It gets better, soon you won't be able to drag them out of bed! Hang in there. Sleep when you can.

Having more than two people in the house who can act as parents is a game changer. Definitely one place where modern society has slipped up, though there's some change in that with families like mine.

Do you care to elaborate?

I've been thinking about this a LOT over the years. I feel like children were meant to be able to roam around and find different adults to glom onto until they're too annoyed and then move on to the next, all the while learning different specialized skills and niches to find one they fit in with.

I can't help but feel that more-than-2-adult households would have a huge advantage in this era.

The problem is compounded by (in the USA) middle class requiring 2 working parents increasingly in most places. We aren't built as humans to function like this.

I agree with you so much. That's an aspect that stood out in The Expanse series. Holden was from Earth and was brought up with many "fathers and mothers" I'm assuming through a time where it was difficult to have children

Looking at today it feels we'd alleviate a ton of parental pressure if we had households like that and not depend on the traditional couple.

I understand that in the novel series that sort of setup was encouraged by institutions (there is a vague mention of taxes), and in The United States this is setup is disincentivized by institutions. However if greater than two parent households was a genuinely preferable way to live I would expect more people to choose that lifestyle now.

"It takes a village to raise a child" [0] sums it up nicely.

Teenagers and adults also need a "third place" [1].

It's all about community. Current individualistic trends and cost of living undermine this.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_takes_a_village

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_place

There's 5 of of us. Me, wife, wife's girlfriend, my girlfriend, and my girlfriend's boyfriend. To my kids me and my wife are mom and dad and responsible for primary parenting duties, but we're all one big family and help each other out. Not unlike cultures where it's normal to have many extended family members under one roof.

People lose their minds when I tell them I have three kids and that my wife and I have rarely ever had less than six hours of sleep.

I utterly despise nuclear families now. Not the families of course (I'm in one!) but the arrangement. It's horrible. For all involved.

I've been there, brother. Hang in there.

At least I'll get some rest when I'm dead!

Blamed 4 kids for sleep problems. Turned out I picked up sleep apnea somewhere when raising the littles. CPAP changed my life.

Lol, always a bright side!

You'll live, but the toll is harsh. Hire help if you can so that you can get some rest.

Hoping to move somewhere I can shove them out the door (nicely) and tell them to play in the neighbourhood.

Sleep deprivation prevents memories from forming, that's my theory on why people have more than one kid. They actually don't form memories for most of the first year or so. The only memories they have are the pictures they took of the happy moments.

Nobody takes a video of their kid screaming their lungs out at 3am with snot running from every orifice because their favourite toy fell off the bed or the pillow is the wrong colour.

I only have one kid. Having to wake up and calm her down (or, "fuck it, no sense falling asleep since she's gonna wake me up AGAIN in 30 minutes") is probably the one thing I remember very distinctly in the last three years. COVID-19 kinda smooshed everything else together and made it bleak. My sleep deprivation stands out.

I want to forget, but can't.

Haha, it's a funny theory even if not true!

It actually has some science behind it:

https://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2010/dec/17/sleep-p... https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7170365/

Basically by not getting REM sleep after a traumatic event your brain doesn't get the time to actually form and store the memories of the event.