What happened to my sweet lil girl??

I NEVER understood when moms warned me that "one day" DD will become a lil devil. I laughed bc we were flying through the "terrible 2's" with not one issue. Then I was told..."oh just wait...the 3s are much much worse!" Again, I laughed and smiled. How could my darling, sweet lil baby girl ever be as nutty as these women were describing?? Surely, not my kid.

Well, I'm laughing no more.

Holy good Lord what has happened???? In the past few days some type of alternative being has taken over my child. She FIGHTS us on everything. Getting dressed. Going potty. Putting on her coat. Eating. Everything!! The throwing of toys when she's angry. The MOUTH! The whining. Good grief, the whining. We try to ignore it. Explain to her right and wrong behavior. Put her in time outs when necessary (but I swear she's enjoying time outs now!).

I know a lot of it has to be her age (she'll be 3 in June). Plus her baby sister (8 months) is now crawling and has become her little shadow. DD1 is an amazingly, sweet big sister, but now she'll even be a lot more rough with the baby. We dote on both girls as equally as we can. We praise DD1 when she's being good. We spend so much alone time with her. I'm at a loss. Advice PLEASE??!!

I'm sure many of you are reading this, smiling and giggling as you were probably the ones warning me this would happen!

What happened to my sweet lil girl??

I am not giggling because I am going through the SAME THING. She fights me on EVERYTHING. EVERYTHING. I am just hoping that this is a phase that goes by FAST. I can't take her little attitude anymore. Oh man..I am in for it. I don't even want to know how she will be as a teenager..ugh that's another story lol

What happened to my sweet lil girl??

i swear to you, you will get your little girl back. i went through the same thing and posted a thread about my crazy 3 year old.

everyone said that it will get better and it has. we saw a few changes when she hit 2 but nothing major. when she hit around 3 /3 1/2 she was a crazy person. melt downs, fights over every little thing. i thought this was the new Mady but it only lasted about 6-7 months. she just turned 4 and i would say we have seen her mature and back to her old self for the passed 4 months.

good luck and hang in there! it will get better!

What happened to my sweet lil girl??

oh and forgot to add, dd was 2 1/2 when our son was born. so we went through the same thing as you. making sure to give dc#1 enough attention and praise etc. by 3 she turned crazy. most of the fights were about clothes.
my best advice is to give a lot more choices but limit it to two options. for clothes, pick out 2 outfits and let her choose one.
and try to apply this to as many situations you can. its all about their budding independence. also, try the reward chart. i started one but never really followed through b/c she her behavior started improving around the time i started it.

look up reward charts and start from there. you will see that 3 is the prime age for these things!

Re: What happened to my sweet lil girl??

Re: What happened to my sweet lil girl??

Re: What happened to my sweet lil girl??

Posted by ko123

Posted by forevermylilgirls

I am not giggling because I am going through the SAME THING. She fights me on EVERYTHING. EVERYTHING. I am just hoping that this is a phase that goes by FAST. I can't take her little attitude anymore. Oh man..I am in for it. I don't even want to know how she will be as a teenager..ugh that's another story lol

I didn't know I would be, but I was so happy to have girls...oh so cute when they are lttle and we can be close when they are grown up, like me and my mom. It's those pesky in between years I am NOT looking forward to!

Re: What happened to my sweet lil girl??

I posted something about this recently too. I had no real issues until recently and am not sure if it's a combo of the age and being in school with kids her age. It is super frustrating to have a power struggle with a 4 yr old - she just turned 4 last week. I'm hoping it's a phase of testing limits but I worry what if it's not? I try a combo of letting her have a meltdown and not make a big deal of it and also time outs - no clue what is best! Only thing that helps me is knowing other moms have similar issues and it's not just my kid :)

Re: What happened to my sweet lil girl??

Yup we went through that here too. She was a nightmare. Couldn't take her out anywhere, barely could deal with her at home. Everything was a struggle. She hated everything. There was no reasoning with her. The tantrums OMGGGG and the whining. I would cry somedays because it was getting so bad. She will be 3 in 3 wks and it's FINALLY (for now) getting better. She's actually been a pleasure the last couple weeks. But it was really rough for months.

Re: What happened to my sweet lil girl??

My dd has been a bit rough too. She is only 2 though. I find choices help. Also ignoring her whining and demanding has helped. I was finding she was just looking for attention and she didn't care what attention I gave her. If I responded to her whines it just fed into it and she would whine and demand more. It has gotten a little better over the last week or so.

Re: What happened to my sweet lil girl??

Going through the same thing. Whining meltdowns just DRAMA. She turns 3 in July so I feel your pain and everyday wake up hoping she will wake up back to her old self lol!