How the older child handles another child in their life
by: Jacqueline Harbinson - 23-02-06 22:15
I am a childminder with a similar problem to your own. I have a little boy who will turn 3 in April and has been with me for the past 4 months. 3 weeks ago I took on a 17 month old girl who does sleep most mornings for 1 - 2 hours. I do have to work with her to put her over to sleep and during this time my 3 year old will not do anything at all - just sits on a chair. When I have the girl over to sleep I try to make the most of the time with the boy but have noticed that his concentration span is getting smaller with each activity. Today his jealousy really became obvious in that when the girl was awake and wanted to play he went over to the object and kept saying no you can't have that. He ended up guarding a whole pile of toys but never actually playing with them. Then I noticed at lunch time instead of using the toilet as he is trained he just wet himself - purely in an effort to get my attention. I don't know what to do in this situation. You can't just keep saying let her play and you cannot force him to play when on his own so it is really hard. This boy is a late child - has an older brother at 15 so is used to getting total attention from mum who is single parent now. I can only empathise with you in this situation but have going now to do some research on what to do in this situation.