4 year old- normal or not?

[garfunkelthecat]

My son just turned 4. Every morning he whinges consistently from the time he gets up to the time I drop him at pre school. When I pick him up he whinges some more. It's about nothing in particular just an irritating white being noise which drives me mad! Weekends are fine, he's a good child no behavioural issues etc just this whinging and whining I hate and I don't know how to stop it. Is this normal?

Anyone?

Sounds normal to me. He could be tired. Have pre school mentioned it? FWIW my dd1 just turned 5 can be like this but I find calm distraction helps, I.e music in the car, talking about nice things, give them little jobs to do and loads of praise when they do them. According to school she’s not the least bit whiny completely the opposite so it’s something they save for us!

Thank you that's really helpful. Pre school haven't mentioned it, it just seems to start as soon as I pick him up some days. I don't want him to become a whiny child so I'm keen to stamp it out!

Oh my word I could have wrote this exact thread. I also have a whinging, wining mardy four year old!

Today we had him throwing himself on the floor outside preschool because he'd forgot his 'blaster' that he'd made which in the end resulted in me actually ringing school to pass the message into his teacher to save his blaster.

I have no idea how to kerb the mardiness, I've started putting him on the naughty step when he cries for nothing, here's hoping it's just a phase

Good luck!

I think that sometimes they don't realise they are whining, or even what whining is.

I found that getting DD to listen to and think about how she was speaking, and then telling her a better way to say it (both words and tone) helped.

Also acting on what she's asking for, once she's asked in a pleasant way. Whining can be down to them feeling powerless.

Of course, sometimes nothing helps. Four is a really tough age.

I came on here with the intention of starting a very similar thread. My 4.5 year old DD is the light of my life but for the last 4 weeks or so, her mardiness seems to have really ramped up a gear! She whines and she moans about everything, her first reaction to not getting her way instantly (which doesn't happen ever!) is her throwing herself about crying. I love her so much but I'm so sick of hearing her!

She goes to preschool and then nursery around her preschool hours and I have been working a lot this last month so I'm putting it down to her being tired but we're into day 3 of the holidays and I'm almost looking forward to going back to work as it's more peaceful! (I don't 100% mean that!) When do they grow out of this stage? I'm trying to do some of the things mentioned by a PP, talking calmly to her, trying to get her to explain how she feels instead of just crying but it's only 10am and I'm so fed up of her behaviour, I'm currently hiding in the bathroom for 5 mins peace! Why is my darling girl being so mardy all of the time?!?

When do they grow out of this stage?

Have you heard the phrase 'fucking fours'... ?

4 has been the hardest age for me so far. Sorry. (But I know it's different for everyone).

Since turning 5, DD has become a lot more reasonable (but also more complicated, so it's unfortunately still not easy)