Question
I have two children. A two year old and four year old. I have followed Dr. Rosemond’s advice from the start with the two year old and there is a night and day difference between their demeanors even now that we can tell a difference from the behavior of my four year old at that age. With that being said, we both fell into the trap of more attention center of the family with our oldest. We take full responsibility! I need to know how to encourage her to play by herself. She is constantly whining, under feet, and is even worse with my husband than me. She is all the time in his face and wanting to sit on him. For example, my youngest had the stomach bug this week and she was very upset that she couldn’t sit with us, to the point of no play and an ugly temper tantrum. How do we reverse the past four years of behavior? I tell her to go play in which we have toys available. We don’t do tv. I encourage her to play outside by herself. Nothing works. How do we draw the boundary line with her after we have allowed this for this amount of time? I want her to be indepent and content with what we have to offer her as far as playthings and time spent. Thank you so much!
