Pesky little girl

choogirl

Hi

I'm hoping someone might be able to help me with regards to my daughter.

She is 8 years old and her DB is 10 years old. DD is a right little madam when it comes to winding up her brother, she knows exactly which buttons to press to provoke the desired reaction. DS always reacts badly to her winding hm up which I know is good sport for DD.

An example of behaviour is DS will try and read a book quietly in a corner but DD will not leave him alone, she'll try and sit where he wants to sit on the sofa, touch his stuff etc, she'll swear black is white just to say the opposite to DS.

Its probably normal sibling behaviour but I have a younger DB and I don't remember it been as bad as my 2 behave.

Any ideas please?

Desperate_Housewife_2-2

sounds to me like she wants attention. Could you organise a time for them to spend some quality time together eg go bowling or play sport together and then allocate 'me time' for the both of them? Could she be bored?

Lotus-eater

I find a bit of short shouting generally works, "stop annoying your brother" or similar.

And if she does it again, the naughty step. My 8 yr old DD would be mortified to go on the NS now

elantan

i would agree with all of the above ... but also maybe try and teach your son how to deal with her ... it will stand him in good stead when he gets older as sadly some people just dont grow out of childish behaviour ... and dealing/not dealing with these people can have an impact in later life

Mojisola

choogirl wrote: »

She is 8 years old and her DB is 10 years old. DD is a right little madam when it comes to winding up her brother, she knows exactly which buttons to press to provoke the desired reaction. DS always reacts badly to her winding hm up which I know is good sport for DD.

An example of behaviour is DS will try and read a book quietly in a corner but DD will not leave him alone, she'll try and sit where he wants to sit on the sofa, touch his stuff etc, she'll swear black is white just to say the opposite to DS.

As you know what she's like and the kind of situations when she will start annoying him, why aren't you stepping? You can get her to do something with you so that he can have some peace. You can keep her out of the room he's in. You can tell her which privileges she's going to lose if she starts winding him up and make it happen until it's not worth her while to get at her brother.

thunderbird

Sounds like standard sibling behaviour to me

I tell my 2 (10 and 12) to stay apart to stop them winding each other up, but they seem to be drawn together. I think it is some sort of love/hate thing

Alikay

Ultimately your son will learn to deal with his annoying sister, but rules like "no disturbing people when they're reading or doing homework" can help in situations like this. I also made my childrens' bedrooms "by invitation only" zones, so they didn't go in needling each other and fiddling with each others stuff!

newcook

I used to annoy my brother in a similar way when I was younger until one day he gave me a cracking backhander!!

gunsandbanjos

There is 2 years between my brother and me and we used to torture each other mercilessly, it's normal sibling behaviour.

Mojisola

gunsandbanjos wrote: »

There is 2 years between my brother and me and we used to torture each other mercilessly, it's normal sibling behaviour.

It's not normal in every family!

If both siblings were doing it, if I could stand the aggravation I might leave them to it. This is one sibling constantly going at the other - if this was happening between two kids in school it would be considered relentless bullying. Why should the poor lad have to put up with this in his home?

tea_lover

I was like this to my sister (4 yrs older than me). I don't know why! I suppose it just entertained me, but part of it was also that I looked up to her and wanted attention from her. So I'd annoy her! Probably made sense to me at the time. As another poster said, a love/hate thing.

You've had some good advice already, I hope you find something that works.

If it's any reassurance, we're get on brilliantly now.