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Advice on my 3yr olds behaviour, I'm desperate!

10 replies

To104 · 29/10/2015 21:29

Hi everyone I'm new to mums net but am looking for some advice/support. I have a 3yr old ds whose behaviour is getting him (and now me) into trouble. He is so boisterous and big for his age he doesn't grasp the concept of playing nice. He pushes past other children or will walk into them to deliberately knock them over. He can not share and will snatch and hurt other children to get what he wants. He's genuinely not a bad boy he is very loving and isn't malicious but it's like he doesn't understand his actions hurt and upset other children. Today topped it off when a father of a child actually screamed at my son for pulling his daughters dress and my son cried his eyes out and was shaking he was so frightened. I asked the guy to not speak to my child like that and how it was out of line to scare him and his response was that maybe it would scare him into not doing it again. I was gobsmacked and didn't know what to say, he then went on to say i was a bad mum for having a child and letting him push other children. Needless to say I left crying and feeling like the worst mum ever. I have a 1 year old boy as well and am very conscious of trying to give them equal attention, is it bad that I wonder if there is something wrong with him, I just don't think I can take him out anymore as things like this keep happening. What can I do????

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cheekyfunkymonkey · 29/10/2015 21:37

Sorry you are feeling rubbish, and you shouldn't have to put up with being yelled at. It is hard having a 3 year old and a 1 year old. Is his behaviour relatively recent (I.e. linked to new sibling), my dd really played up when DS came along. What do you normally do when he behaves like this discipline wise?

NiceCupOfTeaAndASitDown · 29/10/2015 22:38

Parenting by fear?! I feel sorry for his poor DD! Of course he's not a bad boy, he's only 3. I imagine he's got a whole lot of huge feelings and fears that need gentle encouragement to be released and calmed. Have you heard of Laura Markham? Her website Aha! Parenting is very good and Janet Lansbury has a podcast with parenting advice. I like both because they look at the reasons behind a child's behaviour and find ways to empathise but also set limits to help them feel safe rather than trying to change the behaviour and force them to cooperate 'because I said so' (which won't do them any favours when it comes to peer pressure) - I'd much rather DC felt listened to, understood and then did things because they were the right thing to do. I'm sorry you had such a horrible experience today - why parents can't just have a quiet word I just don't know. You sound like you're trying really hard to understand things from your DS's point of view and doing a fab job. It's not easy having 2 little ones so please don't take the behaviour or an insensitive parent personally :-)

RumAppleGinger · 29/10/2015 22:59

People warn you about the terrible twos but I was not prepared for the fucking awful threes!

The guy that shouted at your son is an arse and I'm sorry he made you cry. I understand it can be hard to see your child being wronged by another but his over reaction was totally uncalled for.

My DS was also a tall and I think when they look slightly older people expect so much more of them which really isn't fair, they're still babies.

I found DS hard at three. Consistency and routine helped and wine, lots of wine . We're out the other side of it now and I love spending time with him but for a while it was tough. Good luck OP you're doing your best and I'm sure you'll get through it too. Don't let one arsehole knock your confidence.

DobbinsVeil · 30/10/2015 00:17

Well that dad sounds a delight!
I'm wondering if the pushing and walking into others are because your DS wants to play with other children. I can only really suggest repeatedly modelling a less physical way which I know is difficult with a younger DC around. Is he in preschool/nursery?

SevenSeconds · 30/10/2015 07:10

The other dad should NOT have shouted at your DS, but in his defence it's awful when another, bigger child deliberately hurts your child.

At 3, your DS is old enough to understand that hurting other children is unacceptable. My DS2 went through a pushing / hitting phase and I found that the only discipline that worked was, after ONE warning, to take him straight home the next time there was an incident. This can be frustrating for you (eg if you've only just got there and you have paid to enter) but it really worked with DS2. I also had to do a bit of helicopter parenting, following him around and intervening if I saw that he was about to get physical - this is hard when you also have a one year old!

Try to avoid situations that trigger the worst behaviour. My DS2 was a nightmare at soft play, but I started taking him to a tots music class which he loved, and he never hurt another child when we were there. Also his behaviour was noticeably worse when he was tired, so don't stay out too long if you feel he needs to be at home chilling out instead.

Good luck - I found it really stressful when DS2 was in this phase, but now he's 6 and a lovely gentle boy.

Mrbrowncanmoo · 30/10/2015 20:28

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

asfish · 03/11/2015 13:32

My son is 28 months now and he will either grab other children or go up to them and give them a hug then push them over!

He hadn't done it for a while , but has done it every day for the last 3 days recently.

He knows what he has done as he will often touch a baby when at play groups as well and then tell me about it

So I've spoken with him and told him no TV (he gets maybe 15 mins a day max) I also got a reward chart on the fridge and have stickers that he is not having unless he is good

My wife said today the threat of stickers and what did Daddy speak to you about kept him ok for a while, but he still hugged then pushed a little girl over and also touched a baby and woke her up.

So I'm going to add a naughty boy box and put some of his favourite books in there and link them to the stickers.

To be honest I never liked discipline and don't tend to be too hard on him as he is generally a well behaved boy, but I feel I need to get on top of this and he needs some sanctions and telling off from his Dad

BertieBotts · 03/11/2015 13:53

Three is really hard. I also like Aha Parenting.

At three they very much live in the moment - it doesn't really help if you speak to them later because they won't remember it in the moment. They do often seem to understand when you speak to them, but they won't be able to apply it later. So you need lots of managing in the moment and a lot of repitition.

Okay so to go by issue - snatching. They don't yet understand things belonging to others, they just see something they want and it doesn't occur to them that taking it would not be the right thing to do. But what they do understand is turn taking, but you have to teach it to them. So you can help avoid snatching by keeping a close eye on him when he's near other children. If you see he's about to snatch something then you hold his hands gently and say "Wait, DS. Annabel's book. Annabel's turn. We can wait." When Annabel gets bored of the object, then you can give it to DS and say "Thank you, Annabel! Look, now it's DS's turn." Just really simple language, as few words as possible. In fact, it works better to introduce the concept with something like a slide where the turns are short and clearly defined, than a book, but you get the idea. Practise at any chance you get even when there isn't a problem. Then you can use talking about turns both to help DS give up an object which he has been using for too long, and to help him understand that he can't just grab something from another child. And it helps safety with things like slides. It can also be useful if you're busy with DC2 and need him to wait for your attention.

Hurting other children is obviously not okay. So again you can talk about turn taking if the problem is impatience. Otherwise you can hover and remove him if he's about to hurt another child. If you're too late (it happens) then apologise to the parent, comfort other child if parent is absent, take him away and point out that the other child is upset, but no long talks with lots of attention. You could use this as a short time out as well. You can acknowledge that he wanted (whatever) but give him/remind him of a strategy to get what he wants without hurting - a nice phrase is "Use words, not hands" Of course you might need to also remind him that just because he wants something, it doesn't mean that others have to give it to him!

Running around you might just have to keep reminding him to be careful and that people aren't skittles, it hurts to be knocked over and that's not a game that we play. If he wants to knock things over maybe you can make a game where he can knock over skittles, or teddies, or brick towers (brick towers are also great fun to build for baby brothers to knock down). But not people. If he can't behave in a setting it's a good idea to avoid that setting for a while. And as a general thing, it might be an idea to watch his behaviour generally and see if it tends to deteriorate after a certain amount of time. I couldn't do playdates over an hour when DS was three. They do go through phases when they are more frustratable than others and it's fine to dial back social activities a bit and spend more time at home.

The other dad was out of line. It's not okay to shout and frighten other people's children. Perhaps a shout out of fear or shock is okay but if the parents are around then it should be left to them to discipline, he shouldn't have taken it upon himself.

famousfour · 03/11/2015 20:47

Bed time help! My 3.5 year old has always been a good sleeper without any problems settling. We have always had a good steady bed time routine. He's also usually pretty well behaved. In the past few weeks he has suddenly started refusing to go to bed. I have tried talking to him or taking him back to bed each time he gets up (super nanny style) but he just seems to get more and more excitable and think it's a game. It's as though he has suddenly realised we can't actually make him stay in bed and I don't know how to put the genie back in the bottle.... I'm considering straight out bribery through a star chart or similar - any tips gratefully received!

famousfour · 03/11/2015 20:48

Sorry - meant to add a new post Blush

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