Over the last week, my infant who is becoming a toddler has started casually shoving. Not unexpected behavior. However, my toddler who is becoming a preschooler, who was outgrowing that behavior, has returned to it, and the infant's older sibling is shoving, too. My other regular kid is out on vacation, so the dynamic has gotten really out of whack.
The oldest child, the sibling, is someone who immediately resorts to howling when he encounters a challenge of any type. I have been working with him all throughout each day to say out loud what the problem is and try to address it himself. But when he experiences a consequence or is in a situation he doesn't like that cannot be changed, he starts all out howling. That I can cope with. He has to stay by himself until he settles down. The younger sibling is not only shoving everybody else, but also me! She is also trying to "participate" in activities by rushing in and throwing everything to the floor. At each instance, she is immediately removed from the group, where she rolls around and howls, because either it's genetic or she is picking it up from her brother.
And my other little guy is headbutting and body checking everybody. So I am spending my day shuffling kids from one side of a gate to another, and unsuccessfully attempting to get them to participate in scheduled activities. Put down a puzzle? The infant comes up, swipes all the pieces off the table, gets head butted by the middle kid, and everybody is sobbing. Coloring? The infant swipes her crayons from the table, lunges for the middle kids crayons, the middle kid shows the table into the infants belly, and everybody is sobbing. I put the middle kid into a playpen. The older kid immediately runs straight into the infant to knock her over. Now everybody is sobbing. So the infant Hass to participate in activities from the other side of the gate. Now the older kid is snapping his teeth and pretending to bite in the middle kid, so the middle kid show of the older kid. Repeat. Ad infinitum. Without a non-participatory child here to follow the schedule, I am at a loss of what to do on a chilly rainy day other than allow free play with gates between everybody and just move from one child to another to work with each one individually.
Tell me "This too shall pass." Also, send more gates!
The oldest child, the sibling, is someone who immediately resorts to howling when he encounters a challenge of any type. I have been working with him all throughout each day to say out loud what the problem is and try to address it himself. But when he experiences a consequence or is in a situation he doesn't like that cannot be changed, he starts all out howling. That I can cope with. He has to stay by himself until he settles down. The younger sibling is not only shoving everybody else, but also me! She is also trying to "participate" in activities by rushing in and throwing everything to the floor. At each instance, she is immediately removed from the group, where she rolls around and howls, because either it's genetic or she is picking it up from her brother.
And my other little guy is headbutting and body checking everybody. So I am spending my day shuffling kids from one side of a gate to another, and unsuccessfully attempting to get them to participate in scheduled activities. Put down a puzzle? The infant comes up, swipes all the pieces off the table, gets head butted by the middle kid, and everybody is sobbing. Coloring? The infant swipes her crayons from the table, lunges for the middle kids crayons, the middle kid shows the table into the infants belly, and everybody is sobbing. I put the middle kid into a playpen. The older kid immediately runs straight into the infant to knock her over. Now everybody is sobbing. So the infant Hass to participate in activities from the other side of the gate. Now the older kid is snapping his teeth and pretending to bite in the middle kid, so the middle kid show of the older kid. Repeat. Ad infinitum. Without a non-participatory child here to follow the schedule, I am at a loss of what to do on a chilly rainy day other than allow free play with gates between everybody and just move from one child to another to work with each one individually.
Tell me "This too shall pass." Also, send more gates!
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