Do your kids hit?

[hillview]

DS is 3.5 and started hitting his younger (16 month old) brother. Of course there is an immediate consequence for this behavior (we also talk about using words etc) and it is not "ok" but wondering if any of you have this behavior and what you do about it. Does it get better (worse?!)?

DS has always been a pretty nice kid and not ever hit anyone else. He has started preschool and at a birthday party 2 other kids did hit him so I am sure he is learning some things that way.

He can randomly hit DS when he comes near him and he is playing. It isn't like something building up where we don't get involved (a proud member of get off your butt parenting etc).

TIA!
/hillary

[WatchingThemGrow]

Not really. Maybe DD pushes DS, but it's more when he's trying to crawl on whatever she's doing.

DN hit 13 mo. old DS several times on Christmas Eve. Just outright punched him. She's in preschool and 3yo.

[egoldber]

Amy is a hitter. Sarah is not.

[brittone2]

DS was not (he's almost 5) and still is not a hitter.

DD has been more of a hitter/biter. It was at its worst from age 12-18 months or so. As she's gotten more verbal it is better, but she still tries to hit/bite/pinch. I think a lot of it is the nature of a 2nd child, to be honest. She only has so many ways to voice her frustration with big brother ;)

[maylips]

Heck, DD is 21 months and is a hitter! If she's still hitting by 3.5, I may blow a gasket.

[SnuggleBuggles]

He did until he was like 5yo (it dwindled over time and finally vanished after the first month of kindergarten). It was a long, misearble road down the impulse control path for us. A distant memory now and a lovely, pleasant, even tempered little guy left behind. :)

Beth

[elephantmeg]

not really. I think he went through a phase at about a year where he did but he really hasn't since. Now he does throw, take toys away, take ornaments off the tree, throw food for the dog...

[mom_hanna]

Yes, ds is a hitter. He is 25 months, and hits his 4 year old sister. He also likes to push her buttons and make her mad. He gets an immediate time-out when he hits. We just started this, and it seems to be working for now. dd wasn't and isn't a hitter. She gives us attitude instead.

[JTsMom]

We have gone through 2 hitting phases. One was sometime in the 15ish month range IIRC, and the other was more recent, and much tougher to deal with. He has never hit another child, it was only ever me, 99% of the time- of course he didn't have a younger sibling available either. I think his delayed verbal abilities, coupled with sensory issues, had a lot to do with it.

Last week he was around my nephew, who is a few months younger, and a hitter, and he hit me twice in response to being hit by his cousin. We did a lot of work on expressing anger/hurt in acceptable ways, so we went over that some more again, and it seemed to help. (Of course after that happened, I watched the kids interaction much more closely as well). Have you read Hands Are Not For Hitting with him yet? That helped us a little as well.