My son has two children 3 and 8 who just seem to run rings around their parents. The 8 year old kicks the parent and growls if he can’t have his own way and the 3 year old copies the actions. The 3 year old doesn’t sleep the night through so they get taken downstairs to watch tv at 3am.
I’ve tried talking to my son about having boundaries with the kids as they tried it on with us this weekend and won to some extent. Me and my other half were exhausted and didn’t enjoy the experience. I gave them cuddles when they got jealous of each other and cried or I distracted them onto another task if one was trying to wind the other up but I have to say it was blooming hard work for us and the parents are always saying they’re exhausted.
The parents have spoken to agencies and seem to think the 8 year old has oppositional behaviour traits and the 3 year old may have a sleep condition due to snoring when asleep, I’m thinking sleep apnea (sp?)
I don’t know why I’m writing this except to say we had friends who always made excuses of a medical kind for their two sons and their sons led them a life of hell as teenagers with no actual written medical diagnosis. There are no complaints from school or nursery about behaviours whilst there. So why does this only happen outside these confines? Is it, as I suspect, lack of respect, boundaries and clear rules at home?
