Question
I have a 5 year old perpetual victim. Example 1: He is needling his 7 year old brother who is complaining about it, and I advise the 7 year old to ignore him. The 5 year old explodes “You think I’m stupid? You think I’m bad?” Example 2: I give the 5 year old any number of reasonable instructions (put your shoes on, get dressed for school, go to the bathroom) and he sends himself to his room crying “You said I have to go to time out!” Other times if I am correcting him or giving instructions I’ll hear one of the following: You hate me! You don’t love me! You don’t care about me! You think I’m stupid! You want me to die! Part of me wants to just ignore this behavior, except that its usually loud or happens when something needs to be done in a hurry. Part of me gets defensive, since he’s putting words in my mouth and often they are ugly words that I would never say. And even though I know he’s blowing 5 year old smoke, I certainly don’t want him to think that I actually do hate him, or for my older child to think that I hate his brother, or for him to repeat that to someone that might believe him. I’m at a loss.
