How remorseful are your 3yr olds?

[Saynotopineappleonpizza2021]

Because mine seems to have not a care about if he's hurt me or his dad - I'm almost 100% he understands but maybe he doesnt or maybe he hides the fact he cares/realises

Seen him go to hit the cat too when cross about something and it walked past him

3.9yo DS could not care less!

Most of them appear to have an empathy bypass!

Apparently you don't really get something hurting someone else until you're about 8. Anything before that is a learnt response, not genuine empathy 💁🏻‍♀️

Not at all at that age.
I was quite worried up until about 5 or 6!

Ohh phew - been a bit worried to be honest!

I would still be very firm about it though.

I managed to almost break my finger just after DD turned 2, and whilst I was rolling on the floor trying not to swear, DD just came up to me very quietly, looking very upset, and gently rubbed my back until I pulled myself together. More recently, she replicates what she hears at nursery (she is now just shy of 2.5) - "poor mummy, me get cold flannel" or, where she has done something she should not, she gets very upset and wails until she has a cuddle with the person who is hurt. The upset is not empathy though, she just hates being told off.

3 year olds are knobs. Harsh, but frequently true…

My 3 year old laughs or giggles usually!! I keep trying to teach him the appropriate response and occasionally he gets it right!!

Totally agree that any empathy this age is learnt.

And yes 3yo can be total arseholes.

They call it the fucking threes for nothing

@ManonDesSauce we are very firm and have been trying to get him to understand hitting/kicking etc isn't OK even if he doesn't understand the pain it could cause

My grandson couldn’t care less and my grand daughter would be sorry and cuddling you then do it again.

Mine occasionally seems to show empathy but as people have said I'm sure he's learned that it's behaviour he gets praised for, rather than genuine empathy. He can also be a little psychopath! He hit one of the staff at nursery, which I was absolutely mortified about. I started to talk him about it and said it would have made her very sad and he said 'grown ups don't get sad'...

A 3 year old will laugh in your face if you get hurt! They are tiny psychopaths

Feeling SO much better that he's not just a one off!

No empathy at all. When my 6yo hurts herself he just looks bored and tries to drag her off to play 🤦‍♀️ I'm there like "your sister is hurt, maybe you could give her a cuddle to help her feel better" and he just looks at me like "why is that my problem?" 🤣