Sibling rivalry

Adding another to a family is bound to create a few issues, child 1 spends more time with us as a family because she loves spending time with her new brother, although despite continual prompting he has not yet said her name. Child 2 loves to build as much excitement as possible and then when everything gets too much he makes a quick exit to the peace of his bedroom and his DS, leaving the fallout to his mother. Child 3, who was only a few days ago the baby in the family has had her little spot usurped and unsurprisingly is finding life a little difficult. She is currently pushing all the boundaries, demanding the impossible and exercising her lungs when life doesn't go her way. She absolutely adores her new baby brother, proudly introducing him to everyone we meet, she builds dens and sets up tea parties for the two of them to play, which is wonderful, it's just that a two year old doesn't know how to play so within seconds it's "muuuum, he's spoiling it" screamed at 100 decibels. Generally, everything is my fault and I am the one shouted and screamed at, the one blamed for missing toys! wrong hairstyles, homework written badly and so on.

Yesterday, it took us an hour to walk home from school, because I wouldn't buy her something that she wanted. "You love child 4 more than me" "you are not my mum any more" are a couple of the insults that were thrown at me. All this in between the stropping off and stomping away to be on her own, I think to have time to calm down a little.

How to deal with this is I think to bombard child 3 with love, unfortunately, attention is in short supply with four children, a husband and a slightly psychotic springer spaniel so I have been ensuring that the thirty minutes after child 4 has been put to bed are just for child 3. A cuddle on the sofa, a story or a TV show, warm milk and a biscuit. Then today a visit to the pound shop, just the two of us mother and daughter time.

Eventually life will settle and hopefully the non stop screaming and shouting will ease up.