4yo dd having a bit of a distructive phase?

[UrbanSimplicity]

Since dd turned 4 about 3 weeks ago there have been a number of instances of carelessness and disrespect for things around the house.

i am wondering if anyone else noticed this type of behavior at this age. Not one of these is a horrible transgression, but they seem to be done in a spirit of testing or experimentation. But come on, what's there to test about drawing on the couch!? You'd think she worked that out the first 8 times she did a little scribble here and there and I got pretty upset. All these things are new and they are out of character. Plus there is a lot of throwing, and she's never really done that either.

-she's been throwing glasses into our sink
-she drew a huge submarine on our cream colored couch in pen
-took paints out in the living room and got them everywhere including all over another younger child
-dripped the separated oil from a jar of peanut butter on the floor
-poured out 2 containers of glitter
-she's thrown a heavy object about once a day for a week (this sounds silly, but in all cases it's been something she was holding calmly, one time a wrought iron bell, and then just tossed it unexpectedly.)

Thoughts?

One thing I thought of is we need to get out and throw a ball around!

[OTMomma]

So she just turned 4- I'm wondering if there is anything else going on that would give her an urge to test her limits- was there a lot of talk about how turning 4 would make her a "big girl"? Or maybe she got a later bedtime or a change of schedule?

A lot of kids go through stages of testing limits and making their parents nuts- sometimes there is a reason, sometimes its just a phase. I didn't have a phase like that right at 4 with my dd that I recall, but she did got through a phase somewhere around 3 or 4 where she would intentionally do things to get in trouble- it seemed she really wanted to learn about consequences for her actions. I would say "If you do X again you will have to take a time out" and she would do it, just to see if I followed through on the time out- and then while in time out, she wanted to see how the timer worked, so she'd do something to end up in time out again so she could watch the timer count down. There were some real power struggles going on and DH and I about went crazy trying to figure out how to parent through it. I don't remember how it ended, that phase, I remember I gave up on time outs, and worked hard at coming up with natural consequences that made sense, but she wouldn't like (cleaning up the messes she made etc). But we did all get through it, and you will too.

[UrbanSimplicity]

It does seem like a phase, but I think it's just a coincidence that it started after her b-day. We didn't do any of that "big girl" stuff or schedule changes. Thanks for the thoughts though.

Anyone else?