Parenting confessions are rarely easy to say out loud, especially when they involve feelings people are quick to judge. Admitting exhaustion is one thing. Admitting resentment feels like crossing an invisible line.
That’s why this post stopped so many readers in their tracks. A single dad shared his struggles with one child in particular, describing a daily routine filled with chaos, stress, and moments he’s deeply ashamed to feel. He knows what he’s supposed to feel, but reality hasn’t been lining up with expectations.
Between lack of sleep, constant damage control, and concern for his other child, he’s reached a breaking point. Unsure whether his feelings make him a bad parent or simply human, he turned to Reddit for advice. Scroll down to see what’s really going on and why the situation isn’t quite what it first appears.
A single father struggles with guilt and frustration as his youngest child’s behavior overwhelms him
Parenting exhaustion and frustration can coexist with deep love, and neither one invalidates the other. The dad isn’t describing hatred in the sense of wishing harm; he’s describing overwhelming stress, sleep deprivation, and a sense of being at the end of his emotional rope.
Research shows that the common demands of parenting, including sleep disruption, time scarcity, and managing challenging child behaviors, are strongly linked to parental stress and reduced mental well-being. These stressors are not trivial; they can affect mood, cognition, and emotional regulation.
What the father is describing, exhaustion, disrupted sleep, and constant effort to manage behavioral challenges, mirrors what scientific studies associate with parental burnout.
A 2024 article in the journal Children found that higher levels of parental burnout are statistically linked to children’s externalizing behaviors (like tantrums, aggression, and oppositionality).
The research also suggests a bidirectional relationship: as child behavior problems increase caregiving stress, that stress can in turn influence parenting responses, creating a feedback loop of frustration and overwhelm.
This pattern is not surprising given what is known about sleep and parental stress. A 2005 study published on PubMed Central reports that when children have sleep or behavior problems, caregivers commonly experience impaired sleep and elevated stress, which correlates with poorer well-being and emotional strain in parents.
A helpful way to understand this is that the father’s feelings, including moments where he thinks “I hate him,” are not moral judgments about his child but emotional reactions to chronic overload and lack of recovery.
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine notes that prolonged parental stress, including sleep disruption and time scarcity, can meaningfully “impact mental health and well-being” in parents.
It’s also important to recognize the realities of being a single parent. Research and reporting on single parenting emphasize that when one person carries all responsibility without support, the emotional, logistical, and mental load can multiply dramatically.
Single parents often deal with planning, caregiving, financial management, and emotional labor without a partner to share the burden, increasing the risk of emotional fatigue and burnout.
From a psychological perspective, a preschool-aged child’s behavior, especially if he’s energetic, strong, and prone to tantrums, can be part of normal developmental patterns but also may signal the need for structured behavioral support.
Pediatric studies find that children with externalizing behaviors (like hitting, biting, and defiance) often benefit from targeted behavioral strategies and consistent routines. When these behaviors are frequent and intense, they elevate caregiver stress and can contribute to the cycle described in this story.
Taken together, these findings suggest that the father’s frustration and fleeting negative feelings toward his son are real emotional responses to sustained stress, not an indicator of inherent dislike or failure as a parent.
Researchers emphasize that stress reactions, including irritability, impatience, and negative thoughts under load, are normal when someone is sleep-deprived and caring for a child with challenging behavior without respite or support.
A realistic takeaway here is that addressing this situation means reducing the source of stress rather than shaming the feelings themselves.
Strategies supported by research include seeking behavioral support for the child (which can improve child behavior and parental well-being), sleep hygiene support, structured routines, and, where possible, social or professional caregiver relief to decrease burnout risk.
Feeling overwhelmed or resentful at times does not mean the father hates his son. It means he’s human, under enormous pressure, and in need of support and strategies that address both child behavior and caregiver well-being, not just discipline alone.
Here’s what Redditors had to say:
These Redditors admitted the post fully fooled them before the cat reveal made them laugh
This group confessed they didn’t realize it was about cats until very late and felt shocked or horrified at first
These commenters leaned into the joke, offering tongue-in-cheek “serious” advice once cats were confirmed
This group related the situation to real pet or parenting chaos, joking that the story felt familiar either way
Readers felt concern, frustration, and relief, all in one scroll. Some laughed, others reflected on real caregiver burnout hiding beneath the humor.
Was the reaction proof of Reddit’s empathy, or a reminder of how thin the line is between stress and storytelling? Would the post have landed the same way without the twist? Drop your thoughts below and share whether this one fooled you too.
