Suck It Up Buttercup

[gumdrops]

How do you deal with kids who cry over every little bump and scrape?

I have a set of brothers, ages 4 & 6, they literally cry about everything! I've tried comforting, ignoring, being stern (probably not the best method, but it's ridiculous) and nothing works. Any suggestions?

They also have to win at EVERYTHING they do...they will change the wording to make their situation better.
My dad is older than you
No I'm older than your dad
Oh...my dad's younger than you!

Not sure that has anything to do with the crying, but since I was venting, I thought I would throw that out there ::

[Jo123ABC]

Since they are competitive emphasize how tough they are when they get an owie. "Oh, you bumped you're knee!? You're super tough though right? Show me your muscles! Tough cookie!"

[Josiegirl]

It usually stems from all these situations being given too much attention. I tried to downplay scrapes and scratches, things like that. And using the tough guy-go play now works too.
And ugh, the competition!! I hated that so much. But I also made the mistake(which I tried to change) of making race games out of certain things such as 'let's see who can get their boots on first', that type of thing. I think with that, I'd just ignore the competitive streaks and up-play the good traits about each of them, such as thanking them profusely when you catch them doing something thoughtful, or pointing out ways they made someone happy. If all else fails, divide and conquer; let them each play in their own space with something that will engage them, Legos, etc.