[my3peanuts]

My 4 year old dd has started hitting her sister(2.5) all the time! She's never been aggressive before and while she does get angry at her it used to be verbal but now she's resorted to hitting her. In the last hour she's hit her on the head at least 3 times and most recently I came out and she was hitting her repeatedly over the head with her hand.

Why is she so angry?

I really don't know what to do about it at all! I've explained that if her sister makes her angry she needs to come tell me or sometimes I let them work it out. Once in a while that does work but not lately.

 

[Montessorimom8]

I'd say either #1 (which to me is very likely) she saw someone else do this - at school, on a playdate or just on tv and is acting it out OR #2 She's very frustrated and it's her way of dealing with it.

Ds has never been a hitter or an aggressive kid at all. But at that age he did 'try' to hit me a few times out of frustration. I firmly told him that we do not hit and then we worked on the problem that caused his frustration. He only tried it a few times and then he stopped. Thank heavens!

But I'd definitely try to see if she is modeling this behaviour from something she's seen - another child hitting someone else.

 

[my3peanuts]

She isn't around other kids often and the few she is around aren't aggressive either.

I know she's angry and she isn't getting enough attention.

I've been dealing with some very stressful health issues with my son and haven't been giving her the attention she needs. However, I don't model hitting so I still don't know why she's started expressing her anger that way when she used to do it verbally. Maybe she doesn't feel like she can come to me anymore, I'm not sure.