Parenting Preschoolers (3-5) Support Group
This community is focused on the joys, challenges and concerns faced by parents of preschoolers (3 to 5 year olds). The major areas of child development include: physical development, perception and sensory development, communication and language development, cognitive development, emotional development and social development. Join to share your stories and get advice.
In my family I am known as the patient one. I'm slow to let my anger show and I tend to keep my head about when the others are popping off.
But my three year old is going to do my head in!
I don't know what it is! I dread days now...I spend ALL day with her every day and it's getting to the point where Im tense just waiting for her to step out of her room in the morning.
First is the tantrums. Holy hell. If I thought she was bad before it's WAY worse now. If she drops her mitt lets say she starts whining and flapping her arms whereas before she would just bend down and grab it.
She fights nap time, expected, but by six at night she is a mess, huge bags under her eyes, cranky and overtired. Then bedtime rolls around and she fights it tooth and nail. Calling out from her room ten times or more for an hour or more after she lays down. So then morning rolls around, the day home opens it's doors at 7am and she gets woken up and shes cranky because she didn't get enough sleep!
And the back talk. Holy cripes! Over everything. I tell her to clean up her toys, she pops off, I tell her if they are not off the floor in fifteen minutes (I set a timer now) I will be taking them away. That ends in a fifteen minute tantrum. I tell her I will help and she just watches and refuses to join in so I stop and that results in a tantrum and more back talk. I tell her to eat her supper and she snarks off. Someone looks at her wrong and she freaks.
I havent seen her smile in days unless it's to laugh at someones upset! I need a way to fix this!
My spouse has a week off but I work still, and I work in the home, so I will still have her everyday.
How long does this last? A couple weeks and I'm so over it. lol
But my three year old is going to do my head in!
I don't know what it is! I dread days now...I spend ALL day with her every day and it's getting to the point where Im tense just waiting for her to step out of her room in the morning.
First is the tantrums. Holy hell. If I thought she was bad before it's WAY worse now. If she drops her mitt lets say she starts whining and flapping her arms whereas before she would just bend down and grab it.
She fights nap time, expected, but by six at night she is a mess, huge bags under her eyes, cranky and overtired. Then bedtime rolls around and she fights it tooth and nail. Calling out from her room ten times or more for an hour or more after she lays down. So then morning rolls around, the day home opens it's doors at 7am and she gets woken up and shes cranky because she didn't get enough sleep!
And the back talk. Holy cripes! Over everything. I tell her to clean up her toys, she pops off, I tell her if they are not off the floor in fifteen minutes (I set a timer now) I will be taking them away. That ends in a fifteen minute tantrum. I tell her I will help and she just watches and refuses to join in so I stop and that results in a tantrum and more back talk. I tell her to eat her supper and she snarks off. Someone looks at her wrong and she freaks.
I havent seen her smile in days unless it's to laugh at someones upset! I need a way to fix this!
My spouse has a week off but I work still, and I work in the home, so I will still have her everyday.
How long does this last? A couple weeks and I'm so over it. lol
I'm sorry I couldn't help anymore than that I am new to this site and I am currently looking for advice on parenting too.
I have a few suggestions for you. At naptime instead of telling her to nap, can you give her special "quiet time" toys with the rule she must rest quietly on her bed while playing with them?
Can you use a noise machine to create white noise so she sleeps longer in the morning?
Can you put away some of the toys so there is less to clean up?
Is there any way you can get out of the house once a week to break up the routine? We try to get out to story time at the library once a week. It's challenging with a 10month old, 2 1/2yr old and 4yr old (a nephew I babysit) but I never regret going.
From my experience 3 is rough but 4 is better, 5 is good. My favorite age is 6 1/2! I love 61/2 yr olds!
My daughter turns 3 today and has been this way for a few months already. If she gets mad she doesnt know how to stop. When you tell her she can do the thing that she is angry about it makes her madder and she wants the oppisite. then the wants the thing she wanted to start with and then she finally may take it but becomes mad at something else. She will bite and scream and hit and move things out of her way to do them. OMG im at my wits end
I have also always made my kids stop and take deep breaths when they are starting to freak about something.
And of course consistant time outs for specific bad stuff (tell them why they are going, put them in time out, set a timer (one min for every year of age), don't talk to them AT ALL when in time out, if they come out of timeout then put them back without saying a word and restart the timer, when they are done explain why they went in and then give big hugs and say I love you. We have been super consistent with this stuff and I feel like it is finally paying off.
Every kid is so different that you have to suit it toward them though. You have to figure out what things your kids don't like and use that. What I mean is that, mine HATES being alone, so that's why the room and timeouts work, if your kid likes to be alone, then that wouldn't work for them.