Do your DC 'wrestle'

[IconicTonic]

My kids are 6yo and 3yo and tend to be quite physical with each other. I think it is my 3yos way of getting her big brothers attention, and now that they are fairly evenly matched I leave them to sort it out and only intervene if it's getting too rough.

They were on a bouncy castle at the weekend and every time one of them jumped on the other, as they would at home, the other kids were gasping and saying they were 'at it'. These were slightly older kids but I was a bit shocked at how they saw this brother/sister wrestling.

So should I be telling them not to play like this, they don't do it to other kids and are nice to one other, most of the time...

[brusselsproutwarning]

They sound like normal rough and tumble fun games for your kids. If your kids are happy and not wrestling with others then I wouldn't be worrying .

[purplemurple1]

Id only be worried as the six yr old should be quite a bit stronger but if they both enjoy it and aren't hurting each other I'd leave them too it.

[SurlyCue]

Nope. Not allowed. Some always gets hurt. Same when i was child. Always tears. So i dont allow it. The house is much more peaceful since i banned it.

[fattymcfatfat]

mine don't as there is a 5 year age gap. but DD does attack DS and the poor kid can't do anything about it as he is so much bigger and stronger (very large, strong 6 yo and DD is 18 months, but still in 9-12 month clothing so tiny!)

but me and my brothers used to all the time. there was 5 years between the older one and the younger one with me in the middle. once the younger one reached about 3 it was fair game to fight back. I'm sure we gave our mum heart attack sometimes though. we could get quite rough but never really hurt each other and if we did we always stopped and apologised.

[fattymcfatfat]

should add that we are all grown up now and still pick on each other, but it's all in good humour. we are constantly kicking each other in the shins
my poor mum thought we would grow out of it!

[sheeplikessleep]

Ds1 is 7 and Ds2 is 5 and do wrestle. They know the rules - no kicking or biting or hiting. But yes, they entangle themselves in each other, push a bit and generally act like a pair of kittens.

The only trouble is when Ds3 gets involved, who is 21 months and goes over and does then think it is a license to bite ... an ongoing battle to teach him the 'right' and 'wrong' way to wrestle with his brothers.

[purplemurple1]

Oh yes we have had issues with other kids biting our kid during tussles over toys in nursery. Ours is only 20months though and the other kids are all under 3 so they are all still learning. I guess if ours is stronger and that becomes the only option for others us and nursery are going to have to stop the fighting behaviour with all of them.

[TobleroneBoo]

I'm 25 and my Dbs are 28 and 23, we have wrestled all of our lives

[pictish]

No they don't. At least, not very often at all. It always ends in someone's tears on the rare occasion they do. It's not something I encourage.

[wheelycote]

oh yes

[Bicnod]

Yes they do. The boys are 6 and nearly 4 now and have wrestled since the youngest was about 1. They actually start purring sometimes. I'll be interested to see if DD (5 months) joins in when she's older...

[IconicTonic]

Nice to see it's not just my DC then, as for the person who said my 3yo girl might not be as strong I'm not sure DS would agree!

Very rarely ends in tears so I guess I can leave them to it, at least they seem to like each other.

[Velociraptor]

DS is an only, but he wrestles a lot with his cousins. He is 6, and they are 8 and 12. It does sometimes end in tears, but they know that is a risk they take, and they all enjoy it.

[ToysRLuv]

I did with my DB (2 years younger). We used to do a countdown to match and had a list of rules (no, biting, no tickling and no pinching). DS (5) is an only, so wrestles with me and DH -he actively asks to be tickled, though!

[NurNochKurzDieWeltRetten]

Yes my boys do - dd doesn't. Not sure why - dd is sporty in other ways and plays a lit with her btothers, but she and ds1 have never wrestled (except arm wrestling, which dd wins).

DS1 is 3 years older than ds2 and a lot bigger but never hurts ds2 - any injuries tend to go the other way around because ds 1 is more in control of his strength and DS2 lacks sense restraint atm.

But of all the things that end in tears it's more likely to be something dd says to ds1 than wrestling. The only reason I dislike it is that it often starts at bedtime or on the sofa when DD is reading or watching TV and it is loud and disruptive at supposedly quiet times!