I am wondering if anyone has a different take on my situation. I have four children and my third child, my third daughter who is 4 years old has recently become very emotional. Not one single thing in our home has changed. Two weeks ago she was afraid to go to sleep at night because she thought the house might catch on fire. Her big sister's said it was because they watched the movie Homeward Bound 2, that has settled down but now she gets really emotional everyday for the last 5 days over Daddy being at work and she misses him. My husband works about 22 hours a week, he is home a lot with her and they have a very fun relationship. There was also an issue a couple of days ago that when she was crying and upset, she said she missed our dog that we lost in August 2006... I am blown away by this, I have not experienced this with her older sister's and our 2 year old son is not at an age to go through this yet. Any suggestions would be great!! We have spent extra time reading books, playing in the back yard, painting our toes and nails, etc. I have even been just sitting on the couch holding her to calm her down. I feel so bad for her, but it is also frustrating since I can't explain time to her in a way that a four old can understand!! Daddy has been calling her from the office to reassure her and her big sister's have been trying to play all the games she wants to play, etc. I am at a loss!! Thank you for any suggestions you have!! She is four years old with completely normal developement and the thrid child out of four children. She has always been very active, happy and outgoing!!
Thanks for any support you can give, if you have experienced this yourself, I would love to know how you handled it.
W.
Thank you to everyone that has responded. I am pretty sure she is just having a difficult time right now as she is that inbetween age of still too young to do what her older sister's get to do and to old to do what her younger brother is doing. Now that she spent the weekend with all of her family, she has had a really good couple of days and she was very excited to go to school this morning. We will see what the afternoon brings. Thanks for all of your thoughts and suggestions!!
Forget the terrible twos, my daughter was part of the terrible fours...I called her Sybil (multipersonality)because this totally different cranky, angry girl would appear in my daughter's place. She outgrew it.
Yours is a bit different in that she is a different emotion so I am at a loss for suggestions.
Good luck!
Well I recommend that you Sleep with her for a couple of nicht's. Thats what I used to do with my Mom and I'm also the Middle Child... And get along with my Dad better than my other Sibblings...
I have an almost 4 year old boy who has recently become a lot more emotional as well, things provoke tears that never would before and he will cry over something and say it made him "so sad." When this happens we talk about it but I am a little tougher when it comes to him crying over miniscule things that I feel he shouldn't be crying over - I tell him that he needs to talk to mommy about something that makes him upset instead of crying. I just don't want him to be a cry baby who thinks that crying ALL of the time will get him extra love and attention... that sounds kind of harsh the way I wrote it but I hope you know what I mean. I am hoping it is just the age, I don't have any older children so I have never gone through this stage yet... I will keep you in my thoughts tho and good luck!
I have noticed my 3.5 yr old daughter is really emotional, too. She has always been really happy and just kind of a go with the flow kind of kid. She is my youngest with my my other 2 kids being almost 14 and 12.5. I think that she is just growing and testing boundries and her independence. We have gone through getting a big girl bed and potty training in the last couple months. I think she is just learning to be a big girl but worried that she wont get the "baby" attention. Yours might be going through some of the same issues. I try to give her lots of positive attention and try to teach her to "use her words" when she is upset. Your family seems to be doing great with her. Keep up the constitant postive attention and I think she will grow out of it, just like I hope my daughter will.
Hi W.,
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Other than that...I have no clue.
