So hard on herself

[blessed]

Four year old dd is super sensitive. Super hard working, obedient, sweet. Just a real perfectionist. If she does anything at all wrong, she is just destroyed over it.

Today our nanny was loading her 1 yo in the car with dd to go to the park. The baby was strapped in and dd jumped out to see what nanny was doing, shutting the door behind her. Unfortunately the keys were on the seat (bad idea, I know) and somehow the doors locked when she shut them, locking the baby in.

It was only 70 degrees here today and the locksmith got here in 10 minutes. But the baby was screaming and upset the whole time, not understanding why she couldn't get out.

Dd was SOOOO upset. Just beating herself up, saying how sorry she was and how she didn't mean to do it. Then when they got the baby out she just wanted to hold the baby and hug her without letting her go. She was anxious and upset all afternoon and finally cried herself to sleep.

Nobody was upset with her and we all kept trying to assure her that it was an accident, no harm done. But she just can't accept it.

Not sure if there's anything I can do to help with this kind of thing. Nothing I do or say ever seems to help much aside from just being there and helping to redirect her when she starts to finally let it go.

[Gwendolyn's babies]

I have a very sensitive 4 yr old.

Just hug her. Don't bring it up. If another "opportunity" shows up..oh..she spills her milk or breaks something on accident talk her through it again.

That's all I can offer.

[luv2eatamango]

My son can be very hard on himself at times, a real perfectionist like his mom. I try, when I remember, to give him an example of when I made a mistake or had an accident in my life. Really going into detail about how I felt about my mistake/accident and then how I went on with my day (even laughing afterwards?).