5 year old acting out!!

Kat - posted on 03/11/2011

I have a five year old and a three year old both girls and when I was pregant I involved my older daughter in a lot of my pregancy and once I had the baby I would spend a little bit of the day with my older daughter (like when the baby was sleeping) and that way she wasn't made to feel that it was all about the baby and none about her... Now that they ar five and three the two of them are very close.... Another thing we do is have daddy daughter and mommy daughter days... Where my husband will take one of the girls ( the older or younger whoever he didn't take last time) and do something special with them while I take the other one and do something special with her and we trade kids the next time we have a daddy daughter and mommy daughter day that way they get time with us both alone... And then we do stuff all together as a family too... Right now your older child just wants to know that they are still important to you which of course they are but if you reasure the child of that it might help. Hope things have gotten better

Stephanie - posted on 02/27/2011

We have a 5 year old and a 3 year old and we have been having a lot of issues with acting out and even them fighting (hitting, punching, kicking) - which I know they will do at times in their life (they are both boys). But something I tried doing over the past few days after watching "Super Nanny" is having them look at me when I am disciplining them. It was something she had talked about - that we do not demand respect when we are telling them what they did wrong and they are just looking away from us. Then I try to make sure they tell me what they did wrong (either by them telling me or by asking them a question - such as "Is it a good thing to hit your brother - yes or no?" Then after they say what they did wrong, have them apologize and then give them a hug and a kiss so that they know they are loved - because sometimes pulling out what they did wrong is not easy and you need to be firm with them. However doing all of this is not easy - but I definitely feel better after doing this versus losing my temper and yelling at them. Not sure if this will help - but it's been a little better over the past couple of days.

Holly - posted on 08/22/2010

Thank you so much.. I do hope it gets better once he has something else to occupy his time with.. good luck to you also.

Arlea - posted on 08/22/2010

We are going through something very similar, also had a baby in december and he seems to have gotten worse since then. My mother has nine kids and seems to think the structure in kindergarten will be helpful. I really hope so. Good luck to you!!!