3 1/2 yr old HELP!

Alliebella

Someone has taken my child and replaced him with a monster! He is suddenly super defiant, talking back, and riduculous hard to deal with. Over every.little.thing and ALL DAY LONG some days...Ugh..It's just exhausting.

If I say we are going to do one thing, automatically, he is against it (even if it is something i KNOW he likes) and is wanting to do something different. If I offer him a meal, he doesn't want that, then has a meltdown b/c he can't have what he does want. Today,  he felt out in the lobby at preschool b/c he suddenly didn't want to go and wanted to go back home. He typically is fine at school. Etc, etc, etc.  UGH!!!

Please tell me I'm  not alone!  If you have experienced this, what did  you  do to help it get better? What can I do so that I won't go insane??!

TIA

Alliebella

ridiculous= ridiculously

aprilmomtobe

you're not alone

the only advice i have is wait till 4.  just kidding!  with DS I started reading a lot of books, used a reward chart, and just tried to be overall patient and consistent, but I swear this age is a killer.

mgfit1

You are not alone.  I feel like my little one gets like this and it gets really bad and I have to "reel him in".  It's like he is pushing me to stop holding to things.  The other night he would not eat dinner and got really snotty and I said you either eat dinner and act like a good boy or go to bed.  He was snotty again so I hauled him up the stairs at 6:30pm.  He was screaming (I felt horrible). After about 15 min or so I went up and talked to him.  He knew he was not getting away with anything.  He came around and then asked if he could go downstairs and eat his dinner.  I told him I would not give him any more warnings, he had to come down and finish dinner with no bad behavior.  He did and he has been better since.  It's like he pushes me until I have to really call him out on something and then he's good again for a while.  It is exhausting..........you are not alone!