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New baby - big sister is furious with us. OldieMum needs help, please!

42 replies

OldieMum · 26/07/2006 12:06

DS was born 3 weeks ago. DD is 3.5. She had expressed her concerns about his arrival beforehand ("Will you stop loving me when the baby comes?") and we had striven to reassure her. I had, mistakenly, assumed that his arrival would lead to her falling in love with him and, hence, reducing her anxieties. Things have turned out very differently. She had not been prone to tantrums in the past, but these have become increasingly prolonged and intense. She has not displayed much antipathy to the baby (though she tapped his head yesterday). But she is furious with us for all the time and attention we are giving the baby. She hits out at both of us and screams when frustrated over anything, however trivial. We realise that this behaviour is entirely understandable, but that doesn't make it any less difficult to deal with, especially since we are both lacking sleep from looking after the new baby. In the past, we had relied on occasional use of the naughty step and, increasingly, talking things over with her. Neither seems to make any impact. She is highly intelligent and responds to attempts on our part to reassure her ("DS will need less of our time when he is feeding on solids and needs to spent less time eating") to escalate her antagonism ("So I'll keep crying until he stops drinking milk"). I feel we need to go back to the drawing board in dealing with her, but feel like I've lost the map. ANY suggestions would be helpful. Thanks!

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tamum · 26/07/2006 15:31

Lots of wise suggestion on here already, just wanted to say that you have my sympathy, and that it may well pass. Ds was the same and we had the same age gap, but he got so much better when she was abuot 3 months. He was the first person to make her laugh, and that was a real turning point. As soon as I was able, I took him swimming on his own and left dd with dh, and those times helped I think- individual attention and the chance to chat whilst doing something fun (I remember being terribly impressed because he asked me if we were going to put our clothes safely in a locker, but then I realised he was quoting directly from Topsy and Tim )

motherinferior · 26/07/2006 15:39

And whatever you do, the most important thing is that you are listening to her and taking her worries seriously. She's a lovely little girl, she'll come round to him eventually!

puddle · 26/07/2006 15:41

Elibean I can recommend the Alfie and Annie Rose storybook and the Alfie Big Out of Doors storybook. They are lovely collections of short stories and poems about Alfie and his sister and v good value. Also the one I mentioned Annie Rose is My Little Sister.

My ds is not 6 and still loves them, as does his sister who is 3.

motherinferior · 26/07/2006 15:42

And he'll be much more fun for her, soon. When he starts gazing adoringly...

bakedpotato · 26/07/2006 15:44

PMSL @ Topsy and Tim and the wire shopping baskets

I've realised that my earliest memories date from the time of my sister's birth... especially, sitting in what must have been a Wimpy with my dad, admiring the plastic tomato that the ketchup came in, after what must have been a treaty trip to the Nat His museum...

No memories of the sister at all

motherinferior · 26/07/2006 15:47

The day my sister was born - at home, with me called in to look at her aged two minutes or something - my dad said to me 'so what happened today, then, eh?'

And I said, 'I had my favourite lunch of ham and crisps'

bakedpotato · 26/07/2006 15:49

my dad told me I had a little sister
I said, 'I'm watching Jackanory'

puddle · 26/07/2006 15:55

My sister shredded her Peter Rabbit book to ribbons while I was being born. And then threw my new baby talc all over the house.

Issymum · 26/07/2006 15:58

Huge sympathy OldieMum. When DD2 (already 12 months old) arrived home, DD1 turned from a happy, sunny little 2 and a half year old to a toddler Bin Laden. For about two to three months we endured tantrums, toddler terrorism, screaming at 2am and daily boundary pushing. Looking back at it, I don't think we dealt with it particularly well so I'm not sure that I can give much advice. Lots of love, reassurance, attention and discussion bolstered by no change to where the boundaries are or how they are enforced. I seem to recall we just shouted alot.

The most important thing for us is that it passed and three years later DD1 and DD2 are now the absolute centre of each other's lives.

bakedpotato · 26/07/2006 15:58

DD, when told about DS, did not immediately comment
She was too busy smashing her dolly's head repeatedly against the kitchen bin

fondant4000 · 26/07/2006 15:59

I'm expecting in Nov with similar age gap, so reading with interest!

Just wanted to say that our dd has gone into major tantrum mode since just before her 3rd birthday (and well before pg), so a lot of it is probably developmental rather than directly caused by bay's arrival.

I don't know if it's helpful or sensible to say that it might be worth acknowledging and coping with her behaviour not as a jealousy symptom, but as a 3 yr old thing (i.e. leave the baby out of it and just concentrate on why she's feeling so frustrated.)

I'm having difficulty dealing with the tantrums, and am kind of dreading what may happen when baby is in the mix too!

Issymum · 26/07/2006 16:02

Just a thought but what often works for us is an 'adult to adult' type moment: I'll raise my eyebrows at DD1 as DD2 does something naughty, infuriating or downright mad and we'll both sigh together. It perversely makes DD1 more tolerant of DD2.

Momentarily including your daughter in the adult world and sharing your exasperation about something the baby is doing may actually be more effective than trying to persuade her the baby is fun, which she simply knows right now isn't true.

bakedpotato · 26/07/2006 16:02

Out of loyalty to DD I want to add that we've been very lucky, she made a quick recovery after the doll incident, and has actually been incredibly generous with DS (there's a 3 yr 3 mth gap).

Did get lots easier after his first smile (which was, naturally, aimed entirely at her)

bakedpotato · 26/07/2006 16:04

yes, Issymum, we do that too, it's a goodie

Dottydot · 26/07/2006 16:04

I think it's an effing nightmare (to be honest). We had this with ds1 and to a certain extent still have, although 2 and a half years later things are much easier. Ds1 was furious with us for producing ds2. We'd done all the 'right' things re: preparing him for the new baby, but nothing really prepared him and he was livid. Lots of tantrums, sulks, hitting out - at us and sneaky thumps for ds2. We just kept telling him how special he was - he loves the story of when he was born and I held him first (even though I'm not his birth mum) etc.etc..

I think to be honest it didn't get better for ages, probably until he couldn't remember what life was like before ds2. Now they're 4 and 2 and in the past 6 months or so they've started to play together and ds1 is discovering his power over a younger brother who adores him. I hope they'll always get on but am not sure ds1 will ever love ds2 the way ds2 loves him.

edam · 26/07/2006 19:47

I only have one but am also an elder sister and my mother was very clever at handling initial sibling rivalry. I was 3.3 when the baby arrived and she really gilded the lily about how this was MY sister, making the baby MINE, so I got all protective and loved showing her off (and seriously imagined that I was more important to the baby than our mother).

Gave me important jobs to do, hugely over-emphasised how important my exciting new role of big sister was, did that conspiratorial look that Issymum's talked about - like calling me in when she checked on the sleeping baby/child and saying 'doesn't she look angelic when she's asleep, you'd never believe she was such a pickle when she's awake'. Worked extremely well. So much so that I did the tigress protective thing automatically when my other sister was born 11 years later without knowing why I was doing it, until mother let me in on the secret!

Of course, it didn't banish all sibling rivalry for ever, but it did make her life a lot easier when we were tiny.

Elibean · 26/07/2006 21:05

puddle and oldiemum, thanks - will order them in good time!

For the record, my older sister (aged six at the time) 'drowned' all her baby dolls in the loo when I was born. But we're buddies now

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