How is your 5/6 year old’s behaviour in the run up to Christmas??

[Whatsgoingonwithmyhead]

Awful, awful awful here
is this normal???

As a parent, how does anyone enjoy the festive season????

Are they still in school?

Generally at this time of year, everyone is knackered and ready for a break. The kids have done naff all in school, they're out of their usual routine and all hyped up with plays and concerts etc.

Lower your expectations. Give them extra downtime and make sure they get a decent night's sleep.

My 6 year old is fine. My 10 year old on the other hand…..

Too tired to be badly behaved but insanely emotional.

My 4 year old is getting over a cold, and he's really hard work making me semi-dread the 10 days off together ahead..

Sorry I know he's not 5 yet, but just wanted to say I feel the same!

This last week of term before Xmas is a bloody nightmare. Roll on tomorrow afternoon.

Fucking awful. I have a 5 year old and a 6 year old and they are fighting, winding each other up yet incapable of staying away from each other for 2 minutes. Over emotional, very tired.

I also have a 19 month toddler and she is currently my easiest child!!

My two, 6 & 10yo turn into horrible little creatures this time of year, without fail! A mix of excitement, tiredness, being out of routine in school etc all rolled into overly emotional little bodies who hate each other and us!

My 6 year old is being brilliant but I learnt from last year when he was horrific. This year I booked a couple of forest school holiday sessions for him to keep him busy and distracted and a couple of quiet days so he's not too tired and it seems to have helped

She finished school on Friday

Hard work! He’s twirling everywhere, giddy as a kipper and the shouting instead of talking has begun! I’m sure it’s half tiredness and half excitement. My 9 year olds just not listening and also dancing and not walking everywhere so I assume he’s the same 😬

My 5yo is being a complete bellend. Sorry, not a nice thing to say, but I'm at the end of my rope with him. He's super tired (wakes up in the middle of the night and stays awake for hours on purpose) and constantly on a hair trigger. His tiredness translates into absolute rage and bullyboy behaviour. Oh, and ignoring me and then calling my bluff, only to wail like a banshee when I follow through with the consequences. It's bloody infuriating. Doesn't help that I have outrageous PMS and am beyond knackered myself (teacher). His school doesn't break up until half 3 on Friday, fucking madness.

Do you have an advent box to put things in? If you do, instead of a sweet/chocolate/whatever, pop in a "note from Santa" saying how disappointed he is in the behaviour.

i only ever had to do it once 😁

Absolutely awful. Getting better now school is finished, as long as we explain to him exactly what is going to happen each day in the order it happens.

My 6 year old is fine, tired after two long terms, so he’s beeng having early nights (unknown to him) to mitigate this.
Other than that he’s just excited for Christmas.

My 6 year old ds broke up from school last week.
He is an absolute angel and joy to be around ... Until about 3pm each day when he magically transforms into an emotional, whiney, over-tiredz angry and defiant little boy.
We're doing a mix of fun things, mixed with lots of rest/down time, and time to chill and play; but hes just absolutely over stimulated by the christmas excitement and sheer end of term exhaustion.

I'm trying to be understanding but not let him push every bloody boundary/button.

Lets just say he had an early night tonight, and despite protests he fell asleep within 5 minutes of his head hitting his pillow.

I'm having a well deserved mince pie and glass of wine!

Mi e at that age used to be awfully behaved in the run up. Overexcited!

My 5 year old DS is so overexcited and every other word out of his mouth is Christmas. School breaks up on Friday so he’s overtired and hyper too.

We’ve had weeks of Christmas related school events so he’s been whipped up into a frenzy. Christmas fair (£5), school play (£2 a ticket), panto trip (£20),Christmas lunch and wear your Christmas jumper day, Carol service outside in the drizzle today followed by parent raffle (£2). It’s the school disco tomorrow (surprisingly free!). (Off topic but he came home with a letter about a school trip mid January and could we pay the £11.50 to ParentPay. The week before Christmas and before the next pay day!)

He’s normally completely chilled out so seeing him so whiny and quick to complain is jarring. I’m hoping he’ll crash on Boxing Day after the weeks of anticipation and we might get a lie in! 😂

My 5yo is fine. 8yo is tired and a bit emotional tbh.

Not just me then!

4YO DS here. He breaks up tomorrow. Bed time has been awful. Lots of kicking off, shouting, refusing. Testing every boundary and I guess it is to get the boundary as everything is so out of routine but boy is it exhausting!

Yesterday, he just walked in and burst into tears over a lollipop. There was nothing I could do but cuddle him as he sobbed.

Very much looking forward to breaking up!

Moany.. whiney... "why can't it be christmas now?" For the last 3 weeks 🤣

Seems most of them are the same judging by all the tears at the school christmas fair today 😬

If it's anything like my 13 year old I imagine it's bad!

Just reading this and half laughing and half want to burst into tears. My just turned 6 yo has been horrid today, truly horrid. Won't behave at all and no matter what we say he's doing the "blah blah" routine, stirring the pot and making it very difficult for his younger siblings. No amount of sitting on the step, quiet time with Lego / sticker books, trip to the park has helped at all. Been waiting for him to go to bed tbh 😔 fingers crossed he's more excited than nasty tomorrow.