I'm sure this has been asked before, so I apologize if I'm being repetitive. My 5 year old and 3 year old used to play so nicely together. They still do sometimes, but sometimes/often the 5 year old hits the 3 yr old for no good reason, knocks over what he's playing with, pretends to bite him (puts his mouth on but doesn't actually bite), makes loud scary noises at him... I'm kind of at a loss.
My gut tells me this is an attention thing, and the 5 y/o either needs more attention or is jealous of the 3 y/o, but it's hard for me to handle. Does anyone have advice about this?
I'm sure everyone here will say to give more positive attention to the 5 year old.
Practically, haven't found anything but passage of time to make a difference.
Thank you amother lightcoral. I appreciate that you took the time to comment. Your reply made me feel less alone and also hopeful that this too shall pass...
My 5 year old will do this some times, but here are a few things that seem to be helping:
1. Make sure the big kid gets his own time with parents
2. Every single time he does something nice, notice it. Make sure to also tell other parent how proud you are when kid can hear you
But, honestly, we're still saying "NO" much too often. I hate yelling.
You are definitely not alone…. I have a 3 and 6 year old who interact similarly, if not more extreme.
I recently read “how to talk to little kids…”
Based on what I understood the book would say to empathize with the one who was wronged and about how they feel.
