just hit the terrible twos at age four

[girlpancake]

My ds has always been lovely, sociable, smiley, cuddly. He's never had tantrums but would cry if upset or if he thought he was in trouble. Because of this, and being "the baby" he's probably got away with a bit too much. This has annoyed my 7 y o dd and we decided we had to tighten up a bit on him.

Result: moany crosspatch, doesn't want to eat anything except fishfingers chips and peas, miserable, snarls and shouts at us, attacks sister (she came to me this morning with a handful of hair he had pulled out and bitemarks on her arm). We abandoned a family walk because he was so miserable, dh went on with dd in the sunshine while ds and I went home to cbeebies. He's still pretty good at school and with his friends.

I know this isn't the biggest problem in the world but I love my cheery little boy and I miss him. This is making me sad and is upsetting our home.

I have posted two threads over past week about the horrible, aggressive behaviour of my 4 year old DS.

I am assured its relatively normal and this too shall pass. But huge sympathies to you because I know its a struggle.

Stay strong! It's short term pain for long term gain (keep telling yourself!). Also much better to do it now than say in 2 years when this behaviour is much more inappropriate!!!

Hi, DS1 went thru tantrums at a later age. You have to stay strong! I think when you say 'ds and I went home to cbeebies' you may have to rethink - he is old enough to behave himself. If the behaviour is bad enough to abandon a planned activity then I don't think he should go home for tv and time alone with mum.

Personally I would ignore a kid just being 'miserable', carry on with what I wanted to do and try the distraction technique. But proper tellings off for any biting etc.

Hello everyone, thanks for the feedback. We're actually having a fairly peaceful morning today despite the snow (there's several inches here), which does at least remind me what he's like when he's not being a nightmare.