Struggling with 4yo behaviour.
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My son is the same at the minute. He's always been such a happy boy it's awful seeing him the way he is. The slightest thing will make him kick off. For example yesterday, first melt down of the day was because the butter melted on his toast 🙄 he hits, kicks, scratches, tells me he doesn't want to live with me, says he hates me, hits and is nasty to his 2 year old sister, throws things, tries to break things. On the school run refuses to walk. Will decide he doesn't want to eat his meals. Just an all round nightmare at the minute. I'm guessing it's a phase and he will grow out of it soon enough. You aren't alone, it's so hard though isn't it.
@Annalise oh wow this sounds exactly like my son! It was also only this morning he told me he hates me and wants to go and live with his nan 😂🙄 after getting up at 4:45. We’ve taken his iPad off him so he has been searching for it, even after telling him it’s been taken away he’s not having it until his behaviour improves etc. It is super hard, because he’s a typical boy but usually not this hard work, some of the things he says and does is upsetting and I just think how does he know these words/phrases. I to hope that this is a phase but wow it’s hard and also hard not to think is something wrong with my child?! Is this normal?!
@Elizabeth I’ll have a look thank you ☺️ xx
We are trying positive reinforcement, which is working.....medium 😅. So we divide the day into sections and he gets a sticker for each section he's well behaved (so, like, did he get ready for school without a tantrum? Great, a star! Did he walk to school without sitting and pitching a fit? Another star!). Seeing his good behaviour laid out like that seems to help him want to keep behaving well, and we lay it on really thick: "look, you had a tough time this morning but you pulled it together and had a great afternoon anyway! That's so impressive!" Etc. And then he gets a small reward for every X stickers he completes, but honestly it seems to mostly be the actual stickers that are the draw in his case.
I posted something similar on a Facebook group about my 4 year old. Apparently there’s something called the limbic leap around this age. Have a read of it.