Need ideas/suggestions on managing my DDs recent behaviour towards DS.
My DD is 2 1/2, my DS is 10 months.
At first she was pretty gentle with him, over the past few weeks she seems to be becoming more and more violent towards him.
He's been crawling since 7 months so it's unlikely that.
I feel like the shift may have occurred when the baby bit me whilst breastfeeding and I told him 'no biting'. DD has now started biting me occasionally (whilst laughing) and bit DSs thumb very hard. I now do not react if the baby bites me so as to not draw attention to it.
Now daily she tries to ride on his back, stand on his back, tries to force him onto the floor by pushing his head down, grabs his clothes. Today she pushed him over and he banged his head.
She will intentionally lay down near the baby so he grabs at her hair, which she finds hilarious (I don't, she hardly has any hair as it is without the baby pulling out handfuls). I end up trying to wrestle them away from each other and make a point of telling the baby 'no hair pulling'. But maybe she feels justified in being rough back? As if it's all one big game?
I feel like I can't turn my back for a second or be too far away from them both because she's unpredictable.
It's annoying because he absolutely adores her, and she can be so lovely and caring towards him too.
I just feel so bad, she never had to put up with this as a baby and it breaks my heart to see him hurt.
She's usually a very gentle girl. She's never bit, hit, pushed another child outside of the home and is a very sociable girl at play centres and nursery.
When we are out and about she's fine, but when we are home it's a nightmare. And it can't be boredom. For example, we were at a soft play place today and had lunch etc, we were out of the house for 5 hours, got home and within 10-15 minutes she's being awful to him 🤦♀️🤦♀️ send help... and wine!