my 3.5 yr old is driving me up the wall

[hays1179]

my son is 3.5 and he is my 3rd child my other 2 children were angels compared to him.
he is very naughty having lots of tantrums , spitting, licking people throwing his toys and he crys when he dont get his own way .
when i take him out for a walk he dont want to hold my hand he runs off and causes a scene.
he is not aware of road danger .
when we go food shopping he will start off good then quickly gets worse untill i give him something from the trolly .
he wont sit and play with his toys nicely he will throw them around or at his brother and sister
his siblings are older than him and have no time for him because he is too annoying.
i feel like im at my witts end now i see other children of his age and they are so good waiting in the que of the paper shop holding there mums hand if that was me he would be screaming the shop down for sweets and trying to run off.
i have contacted my health visitor and waiting for appointment but in the meantime just wondering if anyone has advice or going through same as me

Sounds like my ds (3.7yrs). He's the 3rd and does behaviour the others wouldn't think of. Wish I'd had dc in opposite order then I'd have thought how wonderfully easy dd1 was. Ds thinks he's so funny when he licks (it started when he was pretending to be a dog and his sisters thought it was funny... helpful!) he does it to be funny or if he's feeling shy, but he is getting better about not doing it to other children now.

I have two of these!! Twins aged 3.1. Thank your lucky stars you only have one!! Not meaning to say you have it easy at all btw because I know how frustrating and difficult this sort of behaviour is whether there is one or six!!

I also have two older ones who never behaved as they do too. At the moment I hate being with them. They fight, tantrum, cry, be generally annoying alot of the time.

Keep repeating to yourself 'it's only a phase, it's only a phase'. I find this helps me because we all know that this behaviour won't last forever. It WILL get better, but dealing with the here and now is hard isn't it.

No real words of wisdom, just sympathy.

thanks guys im trying to use up his energy by taking him for long walks and the last couple of days he has slept in the afternoon for 1.5 hours !! so maybe that was the problem .

If it's any comfort I had to pick ds2 (3.3) up early from pre-school today. Again. He threw the most almighty tantrum, screamed, tried to climb on the stage and dragged a chair to the door to try and open it to get out.

Lat week my lovely PILs had to call me to pick them all up from a little trip out because ds2 was throwing himself around, screaming and then lying out on the ground kicking.

I do think that it's because he's tired, so maybe it's the same for yours? Also I've wondered about ds's diet- is your ds's diet reasonably good? I've noticed ds2's bad behviour (apart from being tired) can sometimes be allayed with a snack. Low sugar levels maybe? I don't know, I'm speculating- but you're not alone!

My dd3 (3.1 yrs) is very trying too. My other two daughters are complete angels compared to her. Yet most people feel that dd1 was not an easy child but far better behaved than dd3 has ever been.

She is just so naughty. Seems to have no fear of consequences, just cares about doing exactly what she wants.

I missed my babies doctors appointment this morning because she had hidden my keys. Last week, could't find my mobile phone to discover she had hidden it in her bag and then hidden bag in dd1's room.

Like your son her older sisters give in to her all the time for a quiet life. This is obviously not helping.

She just does so much that the other two never did. I sometimes wonder if she manages to slip under the radar more than the other two did, because obviously we have had more children to deal with once she came along.

Anyhow, as someone else said, just keep repeating "this is just a phase".

Is it possible for 3 years olds to have 'swagger'? Apparently it is...j.mp/hwOIO0

Same here.

Is it normal to try and bite, kick and scream when you have to man handle them to their room/time out??

DS is so unpredictable ATM, I just hate playgrounds/parties etc.... he still can't share and its driving me mad. Normal or not?

bumping

It is just a phase. My son was a very ...um... Spirited 3.5yr old. He is now 5.5 and mostly charming with a dash of tantrum when overtired or low-blood-sugar'd. He is also bright and tended to kick off when bored. I upped the exercise (gymnastics is great as it requires discipline and concentration), upped the puzzles, ditched CBeebies in favour of phonics & French DVDs. He calmed down as soon as he was stimulated and even now only kicks off when he is bored. Might be worth seeing how he behaves if you spend a few minutes a day doing these (not realistic to do more, I found it hard enough with his baby sister about!). It may be that he sees his older siblings doing stuff that they may assume he cAn't (being the 'baby'), but can jolly well do it thank you Mum!!

My daughter also sounds V similar to your DS (she is 3.5) and it is immensely wearing, but I just repeat my 'it's a phase' mantra' and hope it will improve in September when she starts Reception!!! Again I enrolled her in Gymnastics (NOT TumbleTots, kids there were even worse behaved than mine!!) and she behaves beautifully there with the firm structure and concentration required. Sleeps well, too ;)

Am considering having a 3rd but I know I am being unrealistic as not sure I could handle anything more than a dream child ;) Kudos to you for not going nuts!

i think i over baby him because he is my baby lol
we went out the other day with my friends lil girl who is 2.5 and she is a lil daredevil and no sense of danger , my lil boy was soooooo good compared to her but he wanted to copy some of the things she was doing but i was there to "ruin" his fun and stop him.
i think i will join him up to one of these gym groups sounds perfect for him.