Do children get easier as they grow older?

I always presumed that as my children grew older, things were get easier.  I would start getting time back to myself.  I was so wrong.  In some respects things are easier,  The fact that I go pop to the loo without someone demanding to know where I am.  The fact that I can even pop to the shops and leave them both home alone knowing they are quite safe but the time factor gets harder,

Back in the days when they had first started school, we would come home and before long it was bath, book and bed and I would still have a reasonable amount of the evening left to myself.  Nowadays I think the kids would literally go to bed at the same time as me if they could and I'm 100% sure that on some nights my daughter is still awake when I go to bed. 

Not only do they go to bed a lot later we also spend most nights of the week running around from one club to the other,  Some nights it is 8 pm before we even get in, never mind thinking about getting them to bed.  I need a big sign in the back of my car declaring Mum's Taxi.

Then there are the weekends.  I used to love a Sunday morning chill out,  To crawl out of bed, laze around safe in the knowledge that we didn't have to be anywhere in particular. Now my Sunday's involve an alarm clock and getting dressed up like an Eskimo enduring all weathers while I watch my son play football for an hour and a half.

Would I swap any of it?  Not a chance.