To lock my three year old in a room

[Dontknowwhattodoreally]

My 3 year old is being very difficult and keeps trying to hurt baby sibling. I keep moving him away but he just keeps moving back and laughing his head off. I keep picking the baby up but he wants to play and tbh it’s not fair on him … no idea how to manage

Thanks. I am honestly mystified as to these horrible rude posts. The playpen one was just a joke, honestly!

You are mistaken. I haven't once said your rude. You've put the wrong posters information in.

You need to do boundaries. You need to be very firm and they need to be constant. For the next week or so the kids not out of your sight. It’s hard but the rewards will be huge

everytime you need to give him boundaries. Stay firm and do it EVERYTIME! Don’t lock him in but you do need to be firm and constant till it stops

Don’t take the baby away because you’re not teaching your child anything. You need to put baby in a safe place and deal with the toddler.

Sorry two Changes and I tagged the wrong one!

He does have boundaries hence not allowing him to climb on brother but sometimes actually getting them to adhere to boundaries isn’t easy, especially when they give no f*ks 😆

Oh OP, I feel your desperation as I’ve been there with a similar age gap. I’d say some posters haven’t actually experienced parenting this type of child. It sounds to me like you’re doing all you can when you’re at home and to be honest I’d focus my efforts on reducing time spent playing at home until this settles down. Which it will.

My frustration, however much I kept a lid on it, definitely made things worse. You need to focus on making the day as manageable as possible for yourself. Is your 3 year old at nursery? This type of behaviour was a factor in me starting my three year old two mornings a week. You say you can’t walk much locally- do you drive? I’ve been known to lean heavily on car journeys. Break the day up with trips to the shop. Drive to a new park. This dreadful phase will pass.

Thanks for that and you’re absolutely right, once I get frustrated or angry or even stern he just laughs. I always thought I’d have no problems being firm but hard when child doesn’t care!

Yep, these kids do not respond to stern. Boundaries by the bucket load but as calm and level as you can manage. My secret weapon is actually a conspiratorial whisper. Also usually shifts my energy into something lighter and more playful, which really helps all round.

I have to say I don't see the alleged rudeness either. Have you just come on here to pursue the time-honoured MN pastime of attacking the OP?

But you will be playing your 3yr old, 1:1, at
that time.
Then as a pp said try and encourage him to interact positevly with the baby. show the baby how clever he is and build a tower, .... shall we see if baby can knock it down.
Get him to hid a couple of soft toys behind a pillow and then he does peek boo with one at a time to get baby to laugh etc.
Lots of praise for him, about him, about how helpful he is, how such a good big brother etc.

You need to parent OP. If he just laughs when you tell him no then you're doing it wrong.

I love this sort of utterly useless input

When you catch moments of 3 year old doing his own thing, being well behaved, you could chatter to the baby praising his big brother in tones and/or with facial expressions that the baby responds to. So that the 3 yr old overhears positive "conversation" about himself between you and the baby.