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Jun. 14th, 2024 04:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
conulyDear Care and Feeding,
I am mum to two lovely girls, 4-and-a-half and 2 years old. Though still very young, their personalities seem quite distinct. I am anxious about some aspects of my older daughter’s nature and need help with what I should be doing to help her.
My older daughter is a very sensitive child. It feels like she is in constant need of external validation or attention. To give a few examples, she can cry for hours at the slightest scratch that my 2-year-old or another 4-year-old wouldn’t even care about; she can feel bad because someone she said hello to on the road did not respond to her or because a friend did not come for a play date (and thus no longer likes her); she will cry for several long minutes after her younger sister hits her instead of pushing back. She also generally seeks a lot of attention from me and her father.
Additionally, in general, she is unhappy about the state of affairs around her. She finds little reasons to be unhappy and is constantly grumpy or whining about things. After a perfectly nice day, for example, she could decide to be unhappy because of the dress she is wearing. And then an incident from several days ago. And then the food on the table. And so on. It’s like you solve an issue and she finds another to sulk about. Even as a mother I find it difficult to handle her “high maintenance,” unhappy demeanor. I would love for her to be a happy positive child with a strong sense of self-confidence. How do I encourage her to stop finding faults with everything, and just be grateful and happy about all that she has?
—An Exhausted and Confused Mother
( Read more... )
I am mum to two lovely girls, 4-and-a-half and 2 years old. Though still very young, their personalities seem quite distinct. I am anxious about some aspects of my older daughter’s nature and need help with what I should be doing to help her.
My older daughter is a very sensitive child. It feels like she is in constant need of external validation or attention. To give a few examples, she can cry for hours at the slightest scratch that my 2-year-old or another 4-year-old wouldn’t even care about; she can feel bad because someone she said hello to on the road did not respond to her or because a friend did not come for a play date (and thus no longer likes her); she will cry for several long minutes after her younger sister hits her instead of pushing back. She also generally seeks a lot of attention from me and her father.
Additionally, in general, she is unhappy about the state of affairs around her. She finds little reasons to be unhappy and is constantly grumpy or whining about things. After a perfectly nice day, for example, she could decide to be unhappy because of the dress she is wearing. And then an incident from several days ago. And then the food on the table. And so on. It’s like you solve an issue and she finds another to sulk about. Even as a mother I find it difficult to handle her “high maintenance,” unhappy demeanor. I would love for her to be a happy positive child with a strong sense of self-confidence. How do I encourage her to stop finding faults with everything, and just be grateful and happy about all that she has?
—An Exhausted and Confused Mother
( Read more... )