I am very concerned about my nephew and his relationship with animals. He is a very instinctive child, 4 years old, meaning that he tends to do whatever comes to his mind. He won't listen ever, he will bother everyone around him and sincerely consider it funny, which I guess is normal for a kid his age. We can't say no to anything that he will start scratching, screaming and throwing things around. The problem is he will bother his cat the same way he does to us. He is not dangerous per se, but he will do things that keep us all anxious like trying to poke at the cat with a pencil or run after him or press on his skin a bit too much. You can't leave him alone for a second that he will think of something we wouldn't approve of to do. He plays with his own cat well when we are around, throwing a plushie that the cat can catch for example, but he may do that for 15 minutes, then all of a sudden he will think of something else to try. He is a high energy kid and we try to keep him busy, but it just takes 5 seconds for him to try something "bad". Yesterday we were at the park and he stepped over a stray cat's tail knowing all too well it would hurt the poor thing, which shocked me. Granted it wasn't HIS cat, bit still it's a living being, how can he not show more compassion? Am I expecting too much? There's no way anyone is getting rid of the cat and I need serious solutions. Has anyone ever dealt with this? How do we get this child to be more mindful and responsible towards his own pet?
I should add that punishments don't really work much. Taking his toys just gets him mad at us enough to start acting spitefully, same with spanking. Talking to him doesn't work either because it's like he got it one second and then does it again 20 minutes later. We suspect he does it for attention but it's constant and no one can expect a child to be kept playing and doing stuff non stop. We are human too. Please help.
I should add that punishments don't really work much. Taking his toys just gets him mad at us enough to start acting spitefully, same with spanking. Talking to him doesn't work either because it's like he got it one second and then does it again 20 minutes later. We suspect he does it for attention but it's constant and no one can expect a child to be kept playing and doing stuff non stop. We are human too. Please help.
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