I have a parenting dilemma and am not entirely sure what to do!
Girl is 4 and a half, Boy is nearly 3 and although they love each other dearly and love to play together, their play is still punctuated by yelling, screaming and fighting!
Quite often they will be playing together in Girl's bedroom and all of a sudden there will be squeals or yells from Boy as his big sister either tries to make him do something, sits on him, or just takes something off him! My natural instinct is to interefere but if I leave them he doesn't come running to me telling tales, unless she's really hurt him, and soon the squeals stop and he's laughing at her again. He's a stocky lad so I doubt she could hurt him.
My dilemma is this: should I interfere as sometimes what she is doing is tantamount to bullying, or, as he doesn't feel the need to get me to interfere and will be playing again quite happily a few moments later, should I leave them to get on with it and accept that this is something they have to learn to work out and will be better people for it?
Any comments would be gratefully received!
PS: To date there has been no actual damage to either child!
That basically sums up my life! Love my make up and nail polish but there is always a mess to clear up when you have 3 children! I have two children with autism and ADHD and I'm a single mum so there are always lots of challenges along the way!
Personally I'd say carry on as you are, your son seems to be very good at deciding when he's had enough, they do need to learn conflict resolution and seem to be managing quite well, you've obviously done a great job as mum so far, keep doing wht you're doing and good luck.
ReplyDeleteIt's a hard one! mine are 5 and 3 and we have the same problem when we leave them to play together alone. Ours are only to happy to tell tales on each other though. I would be inclined not to interfere but when you are all playing together stress what "nice" play is about and how we should all treat each other.
ReplyDeletegood luck!