need advice with 5 year old being difficult every single day

I need advice. I’m having a hard time with my 5 year old (he turns 5 next week). He is the middle child. We have 3 boys (8 yrs old, 5 & 2 ½).

The past few months have been really hard with him. I’m not sure why. I don’t know if it’s because the 2 year old is getting more attention and that’s why he’s acting the way he is.

He’s just being very spiteful, not listening, whining/crying a lot and flat out being difficult for EVERYTHING. I mean everything. I honestly feel like I’m dealing with a 2 year old versus a 5 year old.

I ask him to go upstairs to take a bath and because he doesn’t want to, he walks painfully slow on purpose. I ask him to take off his clothes and he doesn’t. or he does it painfully slow. Driving home from the sitter yesterday he mentions how he wants to go to the blimp store to get a blimp (don’t ask). I explain for the 1000 time that there is no such store, that we don’t have toy stores near us and we’re not going to a toy store (aka you don’t always get what you want). Maybe he should wait for his birthday, etc etc. Because he didn’t like my answer, he was getting out of the car painfully slow. I’m standing in the rain waiting. He finally comes close to the door and I lift him out. I get my 2 year old and we go inside. He’s walking painfully slow to the house. So I shut the door and leave him out there. He stood out there and waited. He was outside in the rain for 5 minutes before I opened the door and told him to get inside. The other problem is he’s very stubborn.

Everything is painful with him these days and I feel like it’s worse towards me. But I don’t know what to do. My husband and I spend A LOT of time with these kids. We’re not electronics people and we don’t have them watch movies a lot. We spend quality time with them. We play board games. We play trains with them. We do puzzles. We’re on the floor with them. I think he wants more attention from me (our youngest is pretty attached to me) but I don’t have any more to give. We have 3 kids. Sometimes things have to be rushed. Sometimes the 8 year old needs more attention with his homework. Sometimes the 2 year old needs help since he’s newly potty trained. I don’t always have the 10 minutes to sit there and try to coax my 5 year old into doing what he’s supposed to be doing.

We’re big on timeouts in my house. We take things away when warranted.

I broke out a rewards chart and that seemed to help things for 2-3 days. Then we all got the flu. Now as of Sunday we’re all better but he’s just been a beast. Obviously I’ll start it up again. His party is Sunday. I also took off the day after his birthday to have a Mommy & Dylan day. He’s been so bad I’m seriously thinking about cancelling them. I mean he’s not mean in the sense of hitting things, hurting people, saying mean things or anything like that.

But I’m just wondering if anyone has any ideas or suggestions? He’s just making every single day difficult and kind of miserable. I need help. I am really not liking my 5 year old.

need advice with 5 year old being difficult every single day

I wish I could speak from experience with my child but I can't. I do remember my middle brother acting the same way when we were younger. My oldest brother was difficult (didn't sleep/wasn't a good eater/along with some other things) so my parents gave him most of their attention which made us secondary to him and it affected my middle brother more then me.(I'm not saying you're doing this just saying how it was for us). My mom eventually noticed and decided to take him out on a date, they both got dressed up, he got to pick the place and the 2 of them went out and did whatever he wanted for the day. It seemed to really help for a while.

Maybe the day with your son will be nice and his attitude will change. Again, I have no experience with this just saying how I saw it in my family. I hope he has a great birthday!

Re: need advice with 5 year old being difficult every single day

need advice with 5 year old being difficult every single day

I find that my almost 5 year old tends to make me miserable when his ears are bothering him. He doesn't say they hurt and he doesn't get fevers - he's just a miserable person to be around (moreso than the normal 4-5 year old I'm not getting my way misery).

need advice with 5 year old being difficult every single day

i could have written this exact post back in November when my son was just about to turn 5. he was acting so miserable the weeks leading up to his party, i seriously wanted to cancel it. i actually had to tell him that if he didn't stop, i WAS going to cancel it. it was terrible. i will say, after his party he was much better. i don't know if it was the excitement of his birthday, or growth spurt or what. but he was in time out daily, things taken away daily and then a few weeks later he was much better. i wish i could give some great advice but i was just consistent with punishments and after the party it got better. maybe it's the same situation with you. hang in there!

Re: need advice with 5 year old being difficult every single day

I think it might just be the age. My 5 year is the same way alot. We have good days and bad days. He's very defiant and can throw tantrums when he doesn't get his way. I do find it's a lot worse if he's tired and we've been having a hard time getting him to fall asleep before 9pm lately. Mine is the oldest of 3.

need advice with 5 year old being difficult every single day

My almost 5 year old has been acting like that too a lot lately. (she is an only child) There are days that she is an angel and then there are days that I don't know what gets into her----and those are the days when I am counting the days until she goes away to college! LOL!

Re: need advice with 5 year old being difficult every single day

No advice, but it sounds similar to my 4.5 year old except also add in lots of tantrums, whining and an inability to keep his hands to himself especially with respect to his older brother. I never had these problems with my older one, but my younger one has been challenging, independent, high energy, spirited, etc for years. We take things away and reward charts are somewhat motivating, but if he wants to misbehave, nothing will stop him. It's frustrating. He's much better on his own, but he gets plenty of attention when both kids are together so I'm at a loss for why he behaves the way he does. I hope you figure out a solution soon.