Anyone else find 4 harder than 3?

[momof2boys]

We called them the f*cking fours...probably the hardest age we've had so far, and some days I wasn't sure we'd all survive!

[Deleted]

I'm not there yet as a parent, but my nephew was great at three and difficult at four. Five was a lot better he's now six which is my favourite age of his so far.

[zeewifeandmama]

Four is....not awesome. Praise God, not as bad at three but the emotions are CRAZY. Is she four or fourteen?! So, commiseration for sure.

[spankswife]

Ugh. Please don't say that! 3-3.5 was brutal. I though we turned a corner at 3.5....I feel like every 6 mos though is a "corner" hard/good/hard/good...

[mlvmd]

DS had been great in that he has been consistently difficult, just in different ways. He is a loving child who other kids seem to adore so I just figure maybe four years of angst will translate into a sweet, docile teenager. Here's hoping. Four has been challenging in that he doesn't see how he is not in charge of all decision making. Favorite phrase, "That doesn't make any sense." Actually no,it does make sense, you just don't like it.

[rootbeerfloat]

With DD, 4 so far has been as challenging as 3, but I think it's just her personality.

[pupcake]

Four was lots of drama. It wasn't her misbehaving it was just the crying and drama all the time of things didn't go her way, or you looked at her funny, or the wind blew her hair in her face, or her sister cried to loud, or you didn't cut the crust of off her sandwich. She is 5.5 now and it has really gotten better. It was hard at the start of kindergarten when she started pushing her limits and learned lots of fun things from her classmates. It did seem like some days there was more crying and screaming then anything else.

[matildasun]

Four has been challenging here as well.

[meltoine]

Ahhhhh don't tell me this! When DS1 was two I swear everyone said that two was horrible but three was better. Now that he's three everyone says four is better. Now you're telling me four is bad too?!?! Noooooooo

[ryry]

I don't have a 4 year old, but I totally see that in DD's preschool classmates. The 3 year olds are great (mostly) and the 4 year olds seem really...complicated. Lots of drama and strong emotions. I'm a little scared of 4 year olds!

[zarapipe]

Please, just no.

3 has been rough. Dd is just as you describe. I hope four is better.

[anna7602]

3.5 was my favorite age. 4 wasn't bad, but just started getting us ready for 5. At 5, she is much less happy to just tag along with whatever we do and is more likely to be pissy about not getting to do/eat/wear exactly what she wants, even when we present options. Plus, she's very dramatic. Sometimes I feel like I have a mini-teenager on my hands.

I hear 7 is pretty awesome. I just need to hang on for another 15 months!

[Mrs.Syntax]

DD1 will be 4 in a couple of weeks. She was an easy toddler... soooo easy! Lately we've been wondering what the hell is going on with her - she's acting like a diva and has been having tantrums like I'd expect a 2 year old to have. And I always feel like a bitch because I'm not willing to compromise on my expectations of her, so it seems like I'm always on her case to be more respectful, remind her of the rules, enforcing consequences... ugh.

[imojoebunny]

I had a three year old over today. I am loving my opinionated, picky four year old, after that. He is more difficult emotionally, and occasionally physically, but he isn't into everything anymore.

[zeewifeandmama]

Mar 6, 2014 21:36:32 GMT -5 Mrs.Syntax said:

DD1 will be 4 in a couple of weeks. She was an easy toddler... soooo easy! Lately we've been wondering what the hell is going on with her - she's acting like a diva and has been having tantrums like I'd expect a 2 year old to have. And I always feel like a bitch because I'm not willing to compromise on my expectations of her, so it seems like I'm always on her case to be more respectful, remind her of the rules, enforcing consequences... ugh.

I felt like this a lot too around 3.5 ( our worst behaviorally)

[countthestars]

I thought this was an announcement that you were pregnant with twins

[Marmee]

DD3 has her days at 4 but generally I still think 2 is the worse. Crying over broken granola bars & broken bananas was the most annoying thing ever to me. My 4yr old whines a bit but my 7yr old exacerbates it. I love when they are more independent so so much & DD3 rarely asks for help anymore.

[cinco]

Not that my older 2 were angels at 2 and 3, but it wasn't so bad. DD1 started getting nuttier once she started kindergarten. It has been rough ever since. I do think it is just her though, and she has anxiety and OCD issues that we have seen a therapist for. She does great at school, but has epic tantrums and crying fits at home...at 7 She can be very helpful and sweet too though.

DS I'd say was rougher around age 4, but we were dealing with so much drama from DD1 at that point, plus his new sis wasn't so new anymore. It makes sense that he would get more difficult. The exact opposite of his sister, he has gotten much easier and pleasant since starting K.

DD2, my easiest baby, is wild and LOUD at 2. She should be a handful at 3, lol.

ETA: All my rambling just to say none of the blanket statements are true for us, and if there is a "magic" age, we are still waiting for it.

[Willis Jackson]

DS had a lot of attitude at 4.

[whereintheworld]

YES. I'm finding 4 incredibly challenging as well. The tears, the drama, the yelling at me, the emotions!

[mainelyfoolish]

I didn't think it was worse, but my DD was really challenging from age 3 to 4.5.

[Marmee]

Mar 7, 2014 11:00:55 GMT -5 jenny1980 said:

Mar 7, 2014 3:25:47 GMT -5 Marmee said:

DD3 has her days at 4 but generally I still think 2 is the worse. Crying over broken granola bars & broken bananas was the most annoying thing ever to me. My 4yr old whines a bit but my 7yr old exacerbates it. I love when they are more independent so so much & DD3 rarely asks for help anymore.

Um, Lu threw an EPIC fit on the ferry last week because her larabar was "too small." She regularly gets pissed if her food 'breaks.'

That stinks. I'll admit i am pretty harsh with stuff like that by age 3-4. I may or may not have retold the boy crying wolf story a few times to keep them from acting irrational over stupid stuff. I've gotten to this place where soon as they start whining/arguing over something, they get one warning & then it goes away (as in I take it away & sometimes trash it). In the car I threaten to throw it out the window. I did that once (a little rubber bouncy ball) & that traumatized them. Lol. They know I am not playing when I say to stop acting crazy or it'll go away. Only takes 1-2 times.

[anna7602]

I was thinking about this more and remembered that 4 was when the "girl cliques" started at school. WTF? I definitely wasn't prepared for that. Mercifully, the girls in her kindergarten class are a little less bitchy than the ones in her French pre-school, but they still have their moments when it's "cool" to exclude other kids or when they say mean, spiteful things to each other. I don't think it's cultural, I think it's the age.

[pinkdutchtulips]

Mar 6, 2014 20:31:01 GMT -5 jenny1980 said:

Lu had a reallllly challenging period around 3.5 but it was short lived. Otherwise, 3 was actually my favorite age so far in a lot of ways.

While she is hilarious and kind and a million other wonderful qualities, 4 is really kicking my ass in a lot of ways. She is SO sensitive and emotional. If things don't go quite the way she wants/expects, there's hell to pay. She's also super bossy (mostly with us; her teachers report that she's a "leader" but not bossy per se).

I don't think I'm looking for advice exactly. We definitely have tools and tricks that work better than others and I don't feel like she's out of control or anything. But I keep reading posts on here like, "Three is SO hard but four is awesome!!!!" and I'm like, "whut?"

Anyone else ready for 5? LOL.

i'm counting the days until 5 ... 4 so far has been ROUGH ! lots of meltdowns over imo VERY petty things.

[mpc]

Yeah I totally read the subject as 4 kids instead of 3. And I was like of course 4 would be harder than 3. and then wait, what? Jenny only has 2 kids!

[dbsk8dance]

We seem to have a 6 month cycle. Really rough for 6 months, then better for 6 months, then rough again.

Liam is 5 in June. I'm hoping we can start breaking our cycles!

[sugarbear]

I refuse to believe this is even a remote possibility. NO NO NO NO NO.

[Deleted]

Lol, well three was so bad for us that there was really no where to go but up  :drink: