How Do I Deal with My 5 Year Old Daughter’s New Bad Behaviors?

Updated on June 18, 2018
K.A. asks from Santa Barbara, CA
11 answers

I had a second child at the beginning of 2018 and ever since my happy go lucky 5 year old daughter has gone completely out of control! She has always been very energetic and excitable, but now this has turned into wild, aggressive (which she has never been in 5 years), rude, disrespectful, and extremely jealous of the new baby. Also more and more, I am concerned she might even be on the autism spectrum with all of the behaviors I am seeing now in her. I understand being upset about losing time with her mama, but this seems like an abnormal reaction to a new sibling.
She will have a meltdown if things don’t go exactly her way (which she never had tantrums in her whole life before this), she will talk back to me and be incredibly rude (scream at me in my face, call me fat, refuse to help me with basic household chores, call the baby stupid), she makes crazy noises all day long, bothers the cat by pulling her tail. I could keep going!
She has also started to say a lot of just total nonsense for much of the day like, “my eyeballs are popping out!” Or “your head fell off and your brain fell out.” Just really strange stuff. I think she’s trying to be funny, but I’ve told her many times nobody understands what she is talking about and it is not funny. She will NOT stop the nonsense talk and does it all day. It is to the point where it can be very embarrassing to go places with her because she says bizarre things or makes noises or is rude to me. I feel so sad about this change in her and am brought to tears at least once day..
has anyone had a child begin to act this way around 4-5 years old? Or as a result of a new sibling?? Advice is much appreciated.. at total wit’s end. I just want my sweet little girl back!!

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M.G.

answers from Portland on

I think wanting attention is fairly typical. What are you doing with her, just one on one? Do you make time for her without the baby? That's really important, especially where she had so much time just being the only one.

Is she getting attention for doing the nonsense stuff - how are you handling that? You don't mention what you are doing in response. Negative attention is still attention.

I would just reward her for positive behavior. Ignore her tantrums/silliness/nonsense. Just as you would a toddler, having a tantrum.

If she behaves, you'll do fun one on one stuff.

If she behaves, you'll do (whatever she considers fun).

I used to say "When you can behave, and be respectful you can come join me for ...".

I never removed privileges that much. I found my kids didn't care, so much as being rewarded in a positive manner - for being kind and respectful. They hated being not-included in family fun or one on one time with mom and dad.

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D..

answers from Miami on

Your child isn't autistic. She is pushing your buttons to get a reaction. It's ugly and irritating, but it's working. She's getting under your skin by showing her butt here, and what you have to do is change how you react if you want to change her behavior.

It sounds like you are home with her all day. As hard as that is, it's the way to put her through behavioral bootcamp this summer to get her to stop doing this stuff.

Put something on the refrigerator that shows "strikes". You give her 3 strikes and then she is out. That means when she starts talking back to you, you say "That's strike one." She continues and you say "That's strike two." She'll escalate and you say "That's strike three and you're out." Take her to her room and shut the door. Let her have her tantrum inside her room. Don't let her come out until she calms down and starts to behave. The first week she will probably in her room more than she is out of it, and that's okay. She will probably scream a lot, and you'll just have to accept that. Don't let the crying and screaming change your stance - you must ignore it. Make sure that she is not alone with the baby. You must protect the baby from her while she is angry and jealous. She is too young to trust to not strike out at the baby in anger.

When she is talking nice to you, doing what you ask, compliment her. Tell her what a big girl she is and how proud of her you are. Give her some special treats that you have at the ready. Smile and sing and talk to her. As soon as she turns the tables on you, go back to "That's strike one" mode. Keep your voice and your face the same each time. And under no circumstances do you allow her to get out of having to go to her room.

You must be 100% consistent. You must show her that you mean business. Don't bother to try to explain a lot of stuff to her. It isn't doing any good telling her that she makes no sense to people. She likes it because it gets a rise out of you. What you have to do is make her lose the privilege of being with you or you paying attention to her by putting her in her room.

If she messes her room up, take everything that she has messed up and remove it from her room. Say nothing. Just continue to do it. At the point she is missing all her favorite things and her room is bare and unhappy, she will start to understand. When the tide starts turning and you actually SEE that she is thinking before she talks or acts ugly, when you see that she is trying to control her behavior, then you know that you can start offering back her toys/things one at a time because she has earned them by behaving well. You can do it up to like 3 times a day. "I liked how you handed me a diaper for the baby this morning and you have talked nicely. What a big girl! Here's your Little Pony." But on any day that you have to give her 3 strikes and send her to her room, you give nothing back to her that day.

This will be really hard while you wait for her better behavior to kick in. But you must persevere. You just must. If you don't, she will be a holy terror in school, and this is your responsibility to fix now.

When things are getting better, make sure that you carve out time to be with her. Quiet moments when you read to her, do a quick art project together, etc.

Wait for at least 2 weeks to take her out. You need to get ahold of her behavior at home before dealing with her at the park, library, grocery store, etc. If I were you, I would wait until your husband gets home to go to the grocery store and run errands.

When you do start taking her out, strap her in the carseat and sit down in the back of the car before leaving the house, and look her straight in the eye and say "If you behave badly while we are out, I will take you right home and put you in your room. Do you understand?" Take her somewhere as a test that is easy to corral her and get her back in the car. She will likely test you just to see if you mean what you say. You HAVE to do it, mom. Be hard-hearted so that she knows you mean business. If you have to leave a cart full of groceries, you just do it. If she's been at the park for 5 minutes, you just do it. If you have ordered food at a restaurant, tell them you need it to go and go stand at the front door with her while you wait for the food and then put her in the car. No eating it at the restaurant.

If she starts screaming and crying when you strap her in the carseat, stand outside the car and act like you don't care. "Read" your phone. Every few minutes, turn to her and say "Are you done yet?" Eventually she will calm down and then you drive her home. This teaches her that number one, you will not allow the bad behavior, number two, if she pitches a fit in the carseat, you don't have to put up with it and sit in the car with her (it's not really safe for you to drive with a screaming child in the car), and number three, she WILL end up in her room when she gets there. There are consequences for putting her family through her drama, and you must give her those consequences in spades.

Don't take her anywhere that it's too important to be on time or that you have to do something so that you can't follow through on your behavioral modification plan. It's so hard, but you just must do it. Eventually she will get this through her head. It will take all summer and more. Have your husband on the same page as you, or she will play you two off each other and try to manipulate him to her will.

She will eventually learn the lesson. It takes lots of patience on your part, and will only work if you show 100% consistency. Children need limits. They need boundaries. If you don't give them to her, she FEELS out of control and will act accordingly. It seems cruel to do it over and over, but it is training that your child needs and actually wants, no matter how much she fights you.

You can do this. Make it your mission.

3 moms found this helpful

B.C.

answers from Norfolk on

How much attention is the baby getting?
There's nothing like an attention stealing younger sibling to make you feel liked chopped liver.
You need to carve out some one on one time with your eldest on a regular basis while dad or a baby sitter watches the baby.
It sounds like she's doing anything to get a rise out of you because even negative attention is attention.
You have more than one kid - so you don't get to be all about the latest baby because your first born is only 5 yrs old and she still needs you.
She doesn't think you care about her anymore - being replaced sure hurts her feelings.
Make a regular date with her to do something that's just you and her.
Go have some ice cream, do some shopping, go to a movie, or play in the park.

3 moms found this helpful

S.T.

answers from Washington DC on

i don't know why you're leaping to autism since she showed no signs of it prior to the new baby.

i mean, the new baby is simply much more likely to be the cause.

do not let your 5 year old reduce you to tears. if it's miserable for you, it's terrifying for her. she's far too young and far too out of control to be in charge of her mother's emotions.

you've got a strong-willed one on your hands and you'd better mom up and start actively and positively parenting her right now. you need to separate out the obnoxious but not important behaviors and ignore them from the absolutely unacceptable ones (torturing the cat, screaming in your face) and having swift and merciless consequences for them.

you need to let her know what the consequences will be (banishment to her room with the door closed is a great place to start) and use them. every. single. time.

if she tears her room apart, take everything out but the bed and give her a spartan cave to live in.

and make sure you're not just focusing on the brattiness. when she's good (and i'm sure she is sometimes) make sure you (without going overboard) smile and let her know how lovely it is to enjoy her company.

be calm. be proactive. be very, very consistent. she needs to know what the boundaries are. you don't have luxury of being too tired or overwhelmed to deal. she's in a mini crisis and she needs her mother's patient inexorable example to lean on as she sorts it out.

good luck!
khairete
S.

3 moms found this helpful

D.B.

answers from Boston on

Why you would jump to "autism" when you have a) a new baby, b) a sleep-deprived/hormonal mom and c) a child going through a massive restructuring of her world, I have no idea. Re-read Doris Day's, B's and Suz T's responses, at least 3 times each. I can't say it better than they did.

If your child did not have these behaviors before, and if she doesn't show them in daycare or preschool, then she can control them. She's saving them up for you. Which means you cannot pin these on a disorder of any kind. This is a parenting issue based on a normal reaction by a 5 year old.

You must establish yourself again as both the head of the household and the nurturing mama she remembers. Stop letting her run the show. Soon she will be 9, then 13, then 17 - and you will have similar challenges of her thinking she's in charge but also perhaps needing more attention. Start now. Get a sitter for the baby, get some big girl time for the daughter, get some sleep for you.

2 moms found this helpful
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J.G.

answers from Chicago on

This is typical 5 year old behavior. They are wild! They are finally able to understand the real difference between fantasy and reality, and they play with it, "my eyeballs are popping out!"

Wait till she's 10 and starts swearing (incorrectly) in public to test her place in the adult world.

Kids do crazy things at different points in development. It's best to learn up about what's normal and figure out how to love them unconditionally even when you want to hide.

2 moms found this helpful

C.T.

answers from Santa Fe on

Seems pretty normal to me. Both my kids had behaviors like this at age 5...especially my son! My daughter was born when he was 5 and he also has an extra challenging/sensitive/stubborn/unique personality! -- lots of temper tantrums and acting out. Really, I think what you need to do is be more kind and understanding. Work on spending time bonding with her again. (Of course don't give in to bad behavior) Schedule special one on one mom-daughter time with her every week...just the two of you because she is such a "big girl". Make sure to really praise her good behavior when you see it. The other thing that helped was to schedule my son lots of playdates with his friends and get him out doing fun things so he was busy. They outgrow this. PS - My son took a long time to mature. Starting in 6th grade was when we really started noticing him being more mature and easy going. Before that we just calmly did not give -- yet also picked our battles. He was impossible. We had him see a child therapist in 4th and 5th grade too which helped. Now he is a pretty great 14 yr old. He was a work in progress for a while there.

2 moms found this helpful

D.D.

answers from Boston on

Pre baby she gets 100% of your attention. Post baby she gets far less because babies are very time consuming. She's not happy and she's letting you know about it by misbehaving so she gets more attention.

Why don't you use the tactic of enlisting her help in taking care of the baby and pointing out the times she can do that the baby can't? Like 'can you get that toy for the baby? You've got those strong legs and can walk but the poor baby can't walk at all.' When the baby goes for a nap make it a point to spend that time with your daughter. Have her pick out a board game or book. Play red light green light in the living room. Have a dance party. Make it your special time together.

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L.C.

answers from Washington DC on

This sounds pretty normal for a child who has always had your undivided attention for every minute of her past 5 years.
You need to be absolutely consistent. Do not reward bad behavior. If you say no, you’d best mean it. You cannot waffle. There are rules and consequences for bad behavior even if your Mom just had a baby. If she is rude, give her a reminder that if she continues, she will sit in time out. If she continues, plunk her butt in a chair. 1 min per year of age. (Please note: It will get worse before it gets better.)
You need to set aside time every day to spend with just her. Read a book, play a game, go to the grocery store, whatever. When you do spend the time, remind her that this is her time with you.
Also, remember to compliment her when she is being good. Thank you for playing so nicely while I changed the baby. It’s so nice of you to bring me that diaper. That’s so helpful! You did such a good job putting your dishes in the sink after snack! Etc.

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K.S.

answers from Seattle on

It sounds like she is having big feelings about the family changes with the baby and doesn't have better skills to express those feelings. You'll want to teach her that feelings are OK and some expressions of feelings are not OK. Here are a couple articles that might be helpful:

https://www.pricelessparenting.com/documents/healthy-ways...
https://www.pricelessparenting.com/documents/how-to-disci...
https://www.pricelessparenting.com/documents/yellingatkid...

This page has links to the Centers for Disease Control's information on developmental milestones at different ages and what behaviors indicate possible problems:
https://www.pricelessparenting.com/development-stages

My daughter (then 3 1/2) also had a lot of trouble dealing with the new baby. Tantrums, pleading with me to carry her, rudeness, etc. I remember it as a very challenging time. Her behavior did convince my husband and I to take parenting classes!

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C.C.

answers from New York on

The socialization of school can do wonders to cure behaviors like these! If she will be in kindergarten in Fall, I bet that you will see many good changes during that time. And certainly when she is in 1st Grade all day every day.

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