Does your 5 year old do naughty things around the house?

[AhhhHereItGoes]

My 5, nearly 6 year old is normally a lovely, albeit quite demanding child. But sometimes she does really naughty things around the house.

She's poured shower gel on the bed, drew on the walls and poured oil on the floor. Normally it's when I'm running the bath, doing the dishes, cleaning etc so it can't really be avoided.

How common is this? I understand how my 3 year old might but a nearly 6 year old?

Are your NT children like this?

No

Dd is 5 nearly 6. She would not do any of that.

my daughter did this with talc it takes persistence and adhering to the rules you make.

Its about making sure there are rewards in place for good behaviour and suitable punishments when rules are broken.Like telling her if you cant be trusted with your crayons alone you will only be allowed to play with them when i am in the room.You have been a good girl this week and you will be rewarded.(let her pick a toy from poundland)

I would also put child locks on cabinets to prevent her from getting into things she shouldn't

Once in a blue moon mine might play with talc. Actually that's dd1 who is 9. Dd2 is 6 she's never done any of that stuff.

Thinking about it I've always been able to leave make up and shower gel and stuff within their reach. They won't touch it

Nooooo not at 5/6. I don’t think his classmates would have either.

My NT 6 year old DD doesn't. The last incident we had was her drawing on her wall when she was nearly 3.

My DS however did stuff like that until he was pushing 9. He does have additional needs though.

Could it be boredom or a way of getting attention?

No, mine would not do any of those things. I didn't think her 2.5 year old sister would either.

No DD would never do any of that, she did draw a big calendar on her wall at that age though and thought it was perfectly reasonable thing to do but not just wrecking the place for the sake of it.

That all sounds like perfectly normal behaviour to me, OP. DD at 6 drew on her little brother’s wall (well, they both did - said they were decorating).

I have a NT 3 & 5 year old. They don't do that.

I would be very very shocked if my just turned 5 year old did this. My 3.5 year old wouldn’t either.

It is not a case of being naught, it is more a case of not thinking of the results of investigating.
It is actually a sign of a higher intelligence, experiments and looking to see how things work. But my god it is hard work till their cause and effect kicks in....
Hand them a cloth and say scrub the wall clean please...
I really did find sitting and making the remove the end result, helped them see they shouldn't have done it..
By the way shouting never worked....

My ds has drawn on the walls when he was 2 once. He's never tipped anything on the bed etc ever. Surely a 6 year old knows that's wrong

No, my 5 year old wouldn't do this. If she does do something like this it would be because she is trying to help. Shower gel on bed wouldn't be one. More like a bit of shower gel down the toilet to clean it.
She would pick my nice flowers to give them to me.
I think there is a difference between being destructive for the sake of it and trying to be good and doing something that might be seen as destructive.
What does she say when you tell her? Do you ask why she did it?

You mention you have a 3 year old, 3 year olds are quite time demanding! Could your DD be doing it for attention? (Please do not be offended)

Not at almost 6, but it wouldn't have surprised me at 2/3.

No my 6yr old wouldn’t do that

No my 5yo wouldn't do any of those things

Nope my 5 year old wouldn’t do that. He has a bit of an attitude since starting school that I’m cracking down on but nothing destructive.

No, my DC never did those things apart from one small smiley face I once found on a wall. The pouring stuff out would concern me tbh

No, my 6 year old wouldn't do these. Although she can be bold in other ways.

My 5 year d is ‘naughty’ sometimes but not that naughty. If he’s having a strop he may throw his clothes across he room or tip his toys out all over the floor but I’d be majorly shocked if he poured shower gel on the bed.

My 5yo DD would never do anything like this but I definitely would have at that age. I think it depends a bit on personality. I was very impulsive as a child and didn’t think through consequence at all.

I remember getting in trouble at 6yo because I found some scissors in a little leather case and cut up the case with the scissors. Why? I don’t know. Logically I could have explained that was wrong but I just didn’t think about that at the time, I just did it. I used to write things on walls, scratch things into wooden tables, pour out and mix up shower gel/ toothpaste/ shampoos etc. At 10yo I burnt a hole in the kitchen floor lino because I wanted to see what happened if you set fire to a crisp packet and dropped it when it went up in flames! Again, I knew not to play with fire but I just wasn’t thinking about consequence at the time. I was an intelligent and inquisitive child but just not very good at thinking before I acted a lot of the time.

No. Absolutely not. And I wouldn't say it's a sign of 'higher intelligence' either.

No, the last time my daughter did anything like this she was 2, she put shampoo in her own hair in the bathroom, which actually isn't that bad. I doubt child locks will help with a 6yo. My 18mo can figure them out, so will she. Just suitable reprimands/punishments for poor behaviour and praise for good behaviour and hopefully it'll stop quickly

No, dc never did anything like that at any age. May have at under two if left unsupervised, but I was almost always in the same room at that age, except for naps.

Mine wouldn’t but tends to follow me around chattering, practicing her singing, trying out dance moves and generally being under my feet.

Is it a way of looking for attention?

Do you think it could be inquisitive behavior rather than naughty behavior?