Background: I'm on maternity leave. Have dd1 (3y9mths) and dd2 (16 weeks).
Dd1 has always been "spirited" since her personality came through. She's smart (wide vocabulary, learns things easily, no issues in that department).... But I can't get her to deal with anger. In the past 2 days she's had 3 monumental meltdowns in which she's hit me, hit my mum (her Nanna who she absolutely adores), her baby sister (who she absolutely adores), bitten her own arm and made a mess of it, thrown toys at me...and the final straw has been smacking her best friend across the face, hard, when they were squabbling about a toy. This last incident happened in a packed cafe (we were on a day out with friends) and I just gathered up out stuff, apologised and have brought her home as I have no idea what to do with her any more.
In terms of dealing with it, I have a zero tolerance approach to hitting, so any hitting, kicking, biting then I take her out of the situation, and then we talk about how hitting is never ok and how the other person must feel and how she can make it right with them etc. I try to head these situations off at the pass but it's not possible when it's a squabble between 2 kids about a toy that erupts in the space of a few seconds and before you know it she's smacked someone again.
She's a model child at nursery. No issues there - ever. She's very loving and loved. Me and DH have a good relationship - no issues there. She's been very happy to have a new sister and never gets jealous. It's just when something makes her angry, she goes absolutlely berserk.
I feel like I must be doing something wrong as other people's kids don't seem to do this. And I feel so embarrassed and like I can't meet up with people in case she hurts one of them. I genuinely want to know what I'm doing wrong or something else I can try.
Any thought appreciated as I'm feeling very upset right now.
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Behaviour/development
Pretty sure I'm the worst mum in the world
10 replies
SleeplessInGarforth · 03/08/2016 15:24
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