harmony with 9 month and 3 year old???!!!

[HenriettaHippo]

DS2 has just learnt to crawl, and DS1 has just turned 3. I can see lots of 'arguments' about toys, DS1 trying to whack DS2 because he's "snatched" his toy or got in his way.

Anyone got any really useful/practical ways they dealt with this phase? I'd like to try and deal with it as positively as possible... without DS1 feeling he's getting the blame/into trouble all the time, and feeling that DS2 is the favoured one...

Thanks.

[Othersideofthechannel]

With a 21 month age gap, I started to let DS use the dining room table (rather than floor or coffee table) to do puzzles or anything else that DD's curiosity would ruin.

[rarrie]

Likewise, we have an extension that acts as a playroom. DD1 plays mostly in there, and when I cannot supervise DD2, she plays in the lounge with her toys out there. They have also got a little table in the playroom, so I insist that anything DD1 does not want DD2 to destroy, that is done on the table. Anything done on the floor is fair game. That seems to work at the mo. HTH

[HenriettaHippo]

thanks for the ideas.