DH and I are interested to know whether anyone DD1 is just 4 but has been displaying what we refer to as 'loss of face tendencies' (not very catchy is it!) for at least the last year. If anything goes wrong - usually her tripping up or falling off her scooter or bike or something like that - then she immediately blames someone else, even if that someone else is nowhere near. It used to be mildly amusing in a 'oh dear god, did I somehow make her like this?' kind of way but that was when she was accusing me of making her fall of her scooter or chair or whatnot. Now it's not so funny now as she's started taking out her embarrassment out on DD2 (who's 17 months younger). The other day she didn't see an uneven pavement, scooted over it, fell over, leapt up puce in the face, shouted that it was all DD2's fault because of XYZ and then she went over and whacked DD2 - who was walking beside me some distance behind. I had to defend DD2 not once but twice as DD1 was so wound-up in her embarrassment and apparently so desperate to find a scapegoat to blame (poor DD2!).
When it happens I try and calmly explain that sometimes things happen to us if we've misjudged something or didn't see a bump in the pavement (or whatever) but that it was her accident and not DD2's etc. etc. We're hoping this is a stage she'll grow out as it's such an unattractive trait and she's really a sweetie (generally !).
Is this normal development stuff or just our own personal little challenge to overcome do you think?! I've thought about it a lot and she definitely hasn't got this from me as I'm the least cool person on the planet and don't have any problems accepting the fact that I was a stumble-bum/clumsy-git or whatever! Anyone else got any experience with this kind of thing?