11 Responses

1. Luis

   15|Oct|2009 1

   Okay here goes, your middle child is likely jealous of the youngest as she gets all the attention that she was used to. The oldest child is likely used to lower attention(even if it’s just perceived) because of the 2 youngest. Your youngest is milking it a little much because she knows she’s the baby and will get treated special.
   So, tell the 10 year old to look out for the youngest and come to you if something happens. If the 5 year old acts up again give her a time out. Don’t give in if she cries of freaks out, she needs to learn boundaries and that hitting isn’t good. Also tell her if she wants a specific toy and isn’t given it to ask you about it. But she likely just wanted the toy because the youngest one had it, and she’s jealous.
   For the youngest one, don’t give her too much attention when crying, once she looks okay say “honey you’re okay, why don’t you go play” and encourage the 5 year old to make amends so neither of them grows unhealthy emotions towards the other. If you baby your 2 year old too much she’ll grow up whiny and annoying, so make sure to keep that in check.
   Just remember time outs and family participation. Best wishes to you for a happy healthy family.

2. chmar11

   15|Oct|2009 2

   Part of it might be that she is jealous of the 2 year old.
   Do you try to give them each personal 1 on 1 time
   to do activities with you? I have a friend that would
   take the toy away from both and put the toy in time
   out until the kids could play nice together.

3. rooney

   15|Oct|2009 3

   These things happen. But your 5 five year old is getting a little too big for not understanding she shouldn’t be rough.
   Just take a favorite toy away from him whenever she is rough or tell her you are going to ignore her from now on if she is rough like that (that really works good.)
   Do this after explaining to her that she shouldn’t hurt her sister, he should love her and take care of her. Ask : Does she want her to cry and feel pain? She’s only 2 yrs old and she was once that age and nobody hit her or hurt her. She loves her very much and won’t like him anymore of she is hurting her all the time, etc.

4. Matt W

   16|Oct|2009 4

   Hey, no joke, watch what they are watching on TV. My nephews watch wrestling and then go oustide and beat up on each other. Sometimes they are just having fun and other times it gets to rough.

5. askemeya

   16|Oct|2009 5

   Try teaching and explaining the concept of sharing to your 5-year-old. Make it sound fun and do lots of examples.
   There’s really nothing you can do to make your kids get all ALL the time though.

6. kja63

   16|Oct|2009 6

   First, supervise your children.
   Second, the 5 year old needs to understand that what she did was wrong and very dangerous. You are the Mom — it’s your job to explain it to her. Once you do that, you must punish your 5 year old for her behavior. You will need to take away some things she enjoys doing, for about a week.
   Finally, you need to comfort the 2 year old and make sure she knows that Mom will protect her. She also needs to understand that what happened will never happen again!

7. MILF

   16|Oct|2009 7

   It sounds like the 5-year old has “middle child syndrome.” That is when they think they aren’t getting enough attention, so they will do anything to get you to pay attention to them, even if it is negative attention. I would ground the 5-year old from the toys that she used to hurt the 2-year old for at least a week. She needs to learn that if she can’t play nice with Barbies, she can’t play with them at all. You should also make sure you spend good quality one-on-one time with all three children, without any of the other children around. This may be difficult with multiple children, but surely the 2-year old goes to bed earlier than the 5-year old, and that would a good time for the two of you to bond. You could even explain to her that she wouldn’t want to be hit in the head or beat up, so she shouldn’t do it to other children, especially her siblings. Good luck!

8. Sadie

   16|Oct|2009 8

   You need to be watching your children more closely. Don’t just brush it off like, “Oh well, kids do this.” The 2 yr old needs your protection, and the 5 yr old knows better. The 5 yr old needs to be punished

9. toxisoft

   16|Oct|2009 9

   Well this is stuff that kids do, its pretty normal I think. You should draw a line, this is where your authoritative parenting should be used. You need to be the one in control!

10. curious georgette

    16|Oct|2009 10

    WELCOME TO THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF MOTHERHOOD!! if there isn’t a scrap at least once a week in my house, I want to know why!!! lol And I have five of ‘em!

11. nikkiv68

    16|Oct|2009 11

    what we do in our house is time-outs and service-meaning that the hurter has to perform service to the hurtee. It works great when the service happens to be work of some kind. Sometimes it really helps to tell the older child what a fabulous big sister/brother they are because…whatever you can find- they are a good example of table manners or teaching to color in the lines- WHATEVER you can find that is true. Then take a deep breath and remember that you can tell this story on her wedding day.