3 year love brother TOO much!

[Gray's Mommy]

We are really trying to be calm & cool about the kids, but this is driving me insane for some reason. My 3 year old really loves his baby brother, but is super rough with him. We keep reminding him to be soft & gentle and even show him how to touch the baby. He just forgets and he really turned 3 a month ago.

Any tricks of the trade???...my older son is 6 years older so we didn't have the newborn/preschooler dynamic going on.

[geo_girl]

I'll definitely be watching, although our little guy is 19mos...

too much love!

;-)

[StrawberryFields]

Oh man I wish I had some advice for you. My 4 year old and 2 year old are OBSESSED with the baby. It was sweet at the beginning but now I am just plain sick of it!! All day it's, "Leave the baby alone guys!" "Get out of her face please!" "Please give Rory some personal space guys!" "The baby is sleeping-- please don't poke her" etc. etc. They hug her on her neck and poke at her face and try to burp her. I thought by now the novelty would have worn off. The only thing I am able to do is hide her in another room or keep her with me at all times.

[momofsamandaddi]

Well, I don't have any advice, but I have to be honest... I am glad I'm not the only one. My 3 1/2 yr. old is pretty good (usually) but my 2 year old is such a MOMMY! She's kissing, hugging, poking, talking, singing, squeezing, etc. All. The. Time! I also feel bad saying to not touch the baby, so I try to do the whole "Touch the baby gently, don't touch the face/head", etc. but it doesn't work most of the time. Oh well. At least it's out of love and not out of being mad at the baby, ya know? Hope you find some help/more patience. (Me too!)

[akat]

I'm in this club, too. My older is 5 - so he's gentle, but constantly touching and kissing Ben's face, and if we are standing up holding baby, he'll come up and pull down on the baby so he can kiss him. It's so irritating! I want to yell, "Just get out of his face!!" The other day, I started poking the 5 yo on the cheek like he does to the baby.

One thing that actually works, is, I talk as if I'm the baby, and some part of the 5yo's brain accepts that as if the baby is really saying it. So I say, "I like to look at you - back up so I can see your face" - 5yo backs up and says, "okay, Ben, like this?" "I like to be kissed on the hand instead of the face!" "okay, Ben! [kisses hand]" "Sing me a song!" "[sings song]"

Once he said to me, "How do you know what Ben is saying like that?"

[momofsamandaddi]

That's a great idea, akat! I'm gonna try it. So cute about him asking you that.

[smokeylo]

I also speak for the baby to reinforce gentle behavior -- and I act over the moon when she's nice to Holly. Fortunately Robin is usually very sweet with her sister.

[jillmamma]

My kids are all over their sister too, especially the 4 year old. She loves to hug her, except that she tends to lay on her whle hugging her. It is hard sometimes, but I am glad that she loves her so much. I praise her a lot when she does act really gentle or act helpful. But no, you are definitely not the only ones!

[Gray's Mommy]

I've heard that this is a great problem to have...loving the sibling too much A few of my friends have had the opposite-whenever the older child walks by the baby gets pinched, hit or hurt someway. I can't imagine that