To ask what your nearly 4 year old boys are like?

[sleepyhollow1]

In terms of

1. listening to requests about behaviour
2. leaving places when they’re having fun
3. “busy-ness”
4. behaviour to any siblings

Thank you !

Hopeful bump

He’s literally just turned 4

1. not too bad with listening, have to tell him to turn his listening ears on if the tv is on occasionally, listening in regards to behaviour do you mean asking them to share?
2. he gets a couple of warnings before hand and on the whole it’s fine unless he’s hangry, then it’s tears!
3. so you mean constantly on the go? Or running around? He’s tractor/digger mad so spends quite a lot of time making up games with them so I guess he’s busy? Every evening the kitchen turns into a race track and he’s outside in the garden as much as possible most days
4. really good with his little brother (almost 2) the majority of the time, they play together lots but he gets upset if littlest walks off with a toy from whatever game he’s playing with it, relatively short lived strop most of the times. Very protective of him and looks out for him.

Is that the right sort of info/examples?

He's 3.5

1. Listening. He needs reminding constantly. He isn't great at listening and following instructions straight away and needs reminding 5 or 6 times about what we have said. Ots exhausting.

1. Leaving places when having fun. Awful unless there is another child we are with and then he seems to know how to behave. Huge tantrums whenever we stop an activity he is into. This is getting better and we have to remind him to stay calm when we tell him how long is left.

1. Busyness. He is constantly "on". Tearing around the house, switching from activities and always always hungry.

1. No siblings yet but struggles with sharing and goes into meltdown the moment anything doesn't go his way.

Please tell me yours is the same?!?!!

My son seems very different to lots of other children. He is very calm and placid but I worry deeply about him because it comes with him being very shy too. He makes friends but on a one to one basis rather than a group and although he listens and does the right things I worry about him a lot.

1. We try not to tell him off as such but give him examples of what he could or should do instead. This doesn’t sink in immediately but overall he’s very well behaved.
2. He doesn’t like it but if I make a deal like, ‘ok one more go on the slide and then we’ll go’ and he will go down the slide and walk towards the exit.
3. He’s not particularly busy. He likes his toys but likes playing by himself. He likes it in the morning when we are upstairs with our 19 month old and he gets to play downstairs on his own.
4. behaviour to any siblings. My 19 month old is the complete opposite and is very busy, she walks up to my son and whacks him over the head and makes him cry. He reacts by going up to her and squeezing her too tight. We’re trying to find ways of dealing with this.

@DartmoorDoughnut I suppose I meant in terms of stuff like "don't wave that stick around, it might hurt someone".

@AmazingGrace16 Mine definitely sounds more like yours. Today has been pretty hellish. He's been having major emotional meltdowns over the slightest thing. Literally if we said anything that he didn't like the sound of.

Phew! Yes lots of emotional meltdowns. More so now than ever before I think. As soon as something goes wrong or doesn't go his way or how he planned then he flips. Its exhausting!

DS is four next week..

Behaviour is fantastic - although that's really only happened in the last three months - he tormented me from day one - now he is lovely

As above - I used to be that mother with the psycho child under her arm leaving places. Now he'll happily bounce out with me. Unless he's tired. Tired DS can be difficult

I dunno about busy-ness? I don't know what you mean

My just turned 4 yr old DS has 3 older siblings. He tries to rule the house and boss his siblings around. He is quite mature for his age but will have a melt down if he doesn't get what he wants. Was at cubs rugby and lost the plot because someone pulled off both his tags instead of one. He is quite funny and went through a recent phase of drawing people on the walls and doors and blaming his invisible friend eric...

Don't think boy vs girl should make any difference (save for the fact you might socialise a boy more leniently and not have such high expectations because "boys are so high energy" or "boys just like to be rough" and other such myths.)

DS is now 12, so it’s a bit behind us now, but when he was 4:

1. Awful. Very selective hearing.
2. Meltdown central
3. Easily bored, short attention span and very hard work
4. No issues. He’s always loved his little sister (3.5 years younger)

He is now a sensible year 7 student. He did really well in SATs (probably not by MN standards - only got greater depth in SPAG and maths). In reception he was classed as lower-than-average and in year 1 he was put on the SEN register for behaviour.

He is still very active and hates being sedentary. He has spent the whole weekend going out mountain biking with his friends and his little sister. He eats twice as much as me but is stick-thin. He is just a very active child. I shouldn’t be surprised - DH is exactly the same.

My almost 4yr old

1. Listening - what's that?
2. Leaving when having fun - we try the whole 2 more goes on the slide thing, but mostly have to airlift him
3. Busyness - literally never stops. Today it was 6.15 am till 7.45 pm. Met friends at a kids place with their 2 nieces and they kept commenting on his energy. My response? Yep, this is my life.
4. No siblings - see 1 to 3 above!

just turned 4 year old ds

1. Generally very well behaved. Non compliant about brushing/ washing his hair, and a terrible eater, but very good apart from that. For stuff he doesn't want to do we have startes to use 'count to 3'. He's never asked what happens at 3 - I'll hace to think of something soon!

2.will leave somewhere quite happily as long as i give him warning. Having a snack he likes for when we get outside/ the car helps.

1. not very busy tbh. will happily sit for hours in front of the tv if i let him. Will potter and occupy himself with crafts and stickers etc, but generally will want me watching him.
2. generally quite kind to ds2 (2). my youngest however is completely different - a total whirlwind and currently going through a hitting phase which poor ds1 bears the brunt off. Ds2 has him in tears most days. Occasionally he'll get fed up and hit back but not often. I worry as he's very shy and struggles to stand his ground.

ds1 is totally like me and ds2 is just like dh. complete opposites!

@sleepyhollow1 he’s very good with that on a 1-2-1 basis/at home, he’s pretty sensible, but if it’s a big group of his peers (say 4) playing a daft game that will inevitably lead to one or more getting hurt generally it’s a case of catch your child and explain why it’s a bad idea!

DS is 4 in February

1. listening to requests about behaviour - he used to be a nightmare but now that I’ve introduced time out, he’s getting better

2. leaving places when they’re having fun - it’s hit and miss, sometimes he’ll be fine with it and sometime he’ll have a meltdown but it’s usually short lived

3. “busy-ness” - he’s extremely hyperactive, it’s exhausting most days!

4. behaviour to any siblings - DD is 5.5 months and he loves her and gives her kisses and cuddles most of the time, he shares some of his older or not so special toys with her but can be jealous of her sometimes too

Thanks for all the replies, I appreciate them! Seems like there's a pretty wide range, and it reassuringly sounds like my DS is similar to some of yours. It seems like after the last couple of months DS has gone from broadly able to listen and respond to requests, to really digging his heels in and now EVERYTHING is a battle/tantrum. It's weird he really didn't have the terrible twos.

Little shit.............
How can someone be so naughty, hard work, draining but completely loveable at the same time.