Toddler shoving his little brother

[midnightexpress]

Since ds2 (7mo) started sitting up a few weeks ago, ds1 (21mo) has started pushing him over, quite deliberately, causing much distress in the midnight house. DS1 is pretty advanced linguistically, so understands that he's not supposed to do it I think (he started disguising his pushing with 'cuddles' when he thinks we're looking). I imagine mine and dp's tone of voice would probably let him know that if he was in any doubt.

It's our first taste of terrible twos and we're not too sure how to handle it. Obviously, we try to cushion ds2's immediate area anyway, but we'd like to stop the behaviour if we can. Does anyone have any success stories with this kind of thing, or do we just have to resign ourselves to keeping them apart when we're not right next to them?

[Othersideofthechannel]

He understands he can't do it but just can't resist temptation. Quite normal for this age.

I used a play pen to keep DD safe when I had to leave DS alone with her for a few minutes. But he was not a climber so never thought about trying to get in at her. Playpen was given to us by friends who gave up after the eldest kept climing in to sit on the youngest!

Safest thing is to get eldest to follow you wherever possible. They are at the age where they like to be helpful so you could try turning him into mummy's little helper 'I've just got to hang these clothes on the airer. Can you carry the pegs upstairs for me'