Bad behaviour

Alice is my 1st so I'm lacking experience and don't know whether I should be concerned about her behavior or if it's considered a "normal" stage for her age but I keep worrying about it. Firstly she absolutely cannot share, she's been in a nursery setting who promote sharing since 9m old but with kids her own age if they're trying to play with something she has she screams and tries to push them over. Even at the park if another child wants to use the slide she's on, she's not happy about it. Yet great with older kids 🤷‍♀️ she keeps smacking us and trying to grab us with her hands and nails. She understands gentle because she'll stroke the cat nicely and say "gentle" and then full on smack it in the face. We're trying all the usual things to help the behavior but I feel like we're clearly doing something wrong. She's not all bad she loves to give us a kiss or a cuddle and she's very intelligent but I'm worried she's going to end up really badly behaved.

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It’s really normal for children to act this way, most of it is just testing boundaries but in terms of sharing again 1 year olds aren’t really at grips with playing with others rather just playing along them. Keep doing positive reinforcement, take her away from situations where she is playing up and praise good behaviour x

Exactly what Cerys said. They don’t learn to play with other kids until they are 3. They play alongside other kids until then! Also the smacking is very normal and it’s a phase. Don’t worry about it. Keep reinforcing kind hands and she will grow out of it x

Thanks both! That's reassuring. If she smacks we ask for gentle hands and if she doesn't respond we just remove ourselves from her to show we're not willing to stay and be smacked. Nursery have said the same about the sharing and that they're not concerned it just seemed like she was struggling with this the most out of my group of friends and babies similar age. I feel really harsh calling it bad behavior but I didn't know how else to describe it haha x

Children have no impulse control until the age of 4 All of the things you’ve listed here are developmentally appropriate for her age

@Joanne you’re doing the exact right thing! It is ‘bad behaviour’ but she isn’t meaning to do it to be bad. It’s not favourable but she definitely will grow out of it along with some positive reinforcement! You might not see other children do it as much but they may be like it more at home, typically wherever they’re most comfortable they will play up! x

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