Please tell me my 4.5 yr old dd is acting her age, not being a brat...

[BabyGiraffes]

We've had many tears over Christmas from dd1 because she invariably wanted what her sister (22mths) had. As an example, her sister got a pink hat and marbles in her cracker... cue tears because dd1's hat was the wrong colour (ie. not pink) and did not have marbles in it etc etc. There were many more situation where she absolutely had to have whatever her sister had just unpacked/picked up/eaten/played with and it made me quite cross at times. Please tell me she was just acting her age (a very young 4.5 year old) and overwhelmed by Christmas and not turning into a terrible brat... Anyone?

That sounds like an over excited 4 year old to me. Both of my DCs have had no interest at all in anything other than the toy the other one was playing with for the last two days!!

She sounds like a typical 4 yo at Christmas!! I am sure she will settle down in a few days time.

Hopefully, she's a typical 4.5 year old because she sounds very much like mine . Honestly, if her sister or brother had a great big steaming pile of dog shit, I'm pretty sure she'd want it too

My mature and usually sensible 5 year old has been FAR worse than that over the past few days! Don't worry. Completely normal, IMO.

Changes in routine, changes in food, being overwhelmed by presents and the excitement etc etc can make the nicest child turn horrible. My lovely mild mannered 9 year old DS3 locked himself in a bathroom today because he lost in a Wii tournament - and it wasn't even our bathroom :o. Your DD will be fine once everything's settled back down a bit.

sounds just like my four year old too

I am so glad you all say that because I was beginning to wonder what was happening to her!!! I guess she was also quite exhausted after her first term at school and she has had quite a bad cold... I have tried to be quite patient with her but haven't totally succeeded . Will try harder to understand where she is coming from .

My 7 year old is jealous of my friend's new baby's reindeer costume. I think I might have a little more to worry about.. your DD sounds normal :)

The trick is to have a nice bottle of in the fridge to look forward to come her bedtime :) You'll probably be able to chill out a bit about it now, now that you know she's just acting like a fairly normal 4yo at C and not turning into the devil child!!

My friend's 5 yo (normally the sweetest, most laid back kid on the planet) had a major melt down yesterday because his 7 yo sister kept making him 'go all wrong' on his new DS game (new DS too, so all new). Fair call - his sister is normally a monumental pain in the arse (love her but...) only in this instance we were all in the same room and she was sitting on the other settee with me - no where near him! Apparently when I blinked she was running across bumping him and running back

You have all cheered me up enormously!