9 signs you're the parent of a four year old
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9 signs that you’re the parent of a four year old

Four year olds are a total breed apart from children at other ages.

Two year olds have the terrible twos (well, many do, we seemed to avoid that one).

Three year olds become threenagers.  We had an extremely challenging little boy compared to normal when N turned three (only a month thankfully).  Saying no to everything, wanting and doing the opposite of everything.  Just generally challenging and testing.

And now N’s four, there’s a whole different ballgame going on.  I’m loving this age.  You can have brilliant (if strange and sometimes challenging) conversations, imagination, role play and problem solving is really getting going, and from other parents of four year olds, it seems to be generally a fairly easy age compared to some previous tantruming years.

But there’s some defining moments during this year, which tells a parent that they have a four year old.

9 signs you're the parent of a 4 year old - Bubbablueandme

9 signs you’re the parent of a four year old when:

You’re singing and humming along all day at work,  then realise that it’s the song from the children’s song dvd your child’s been watching on repeat.

You know all the words to Peppa Pig and can do the accents of at least 4 characters.  And can recognise tv programmes from the same production company by the voiceovers.

You get up earlier than your alarm to find your four year old making their own breakfast…and/or leaving the detritus behind.  The fridge door open, an empty yoghurt pot, chunks cut out of the cheese, hacked into butter and crumbs in the living room.  Not forgetting the used baby wipe left on the work surface.

You find stickers all over you, the OH, your tablet, smartphone, laptop, fridge, door, the washing machine, the bottom of your shoes….because you’ve been good.

You worry about what they’ve told nursery school/preschool staff.  N has a tendency to try and trick people.  I don’t think he’s aiming to lie, he just wants to test if he can trick people.  But it’s very worrying what truths, observations or stories he might tell the staff at nursery every day he goes in.

You spend a lot of time googling answers to random questions that you’ve run out of creative answers for….unless you’re of the ‘whatever’, ‘I don’t know’ disposition when you get sick of their questions.

You always pick up the right shoe and right sock first when helping the 4 year old get dressed.  It saves so much more time arguing that you’ve picked up first is what will be going on first, then having to keep the peace and do the right first for the sake of getting out of the door first.

You worry about whether parents will keep their children away from your four year old after hearing that he’s been showing off his dancing moves.  Disturbingly, N’s been taught some not particularly flattering or age appropriate moves by his dad.  I’m hoping he doesn’t do these in public, and will have grown out of them by the time he starts school.

You get lots of spontaneous hugs and kisses, and they’re not sloppy ones.  They’re not just reserved for you.  Everyone gets them…family, friends, nursery staff, the dog.

What else would you add to the list?  What were your children like when they hit four?

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7 Comments

  1. This pretty much sums up life in our house! We also have a lot of attempts at negotiating when we say no to something too! xx

  2. We haven’t made it to four with my youngest yet, but some of those are still familiar – particularly the making breakfast and spontaneous hugs and kisses – I love them.

    We also get some strange questions. Generally they are science or engineering based so we can answer them, but this week I’ve had “Why can’t we remove our hands?” I wasn’t sure where to go with that one.

    1. Wow, that’s certainly one we’ve not come across. N’s tend to be more outdoor based, or about tractors, which he probably knows more about than me.

  3. Haha! I love this:-) We’re a bit past four but we have stickers and sweet notes everywhere too. We also have occasions when his nursery teacher walks him out of class to have a word. Like how she caught him and a friend testing to see if the overflow hole in the sinks would work if they turned both taps on and stopped up the plug holes… She hasn’t spoken to me yet about his dance moves, but I’m dreading that moment too. We also have mounds of recycling-turned-inventions taking over the house. Good times.

  4. Considering it wasn’t that long ago I can hardly remember. Mine still doesn’t make his own breakfast, but that says more about me and my needing control than him and he’s never been that fussed with sticking stickers anywhere they shouldn’t be. I guess by 4 he was into serious construction play, and it just gets more and more involved. 4-5 is a great age, real conversations, you can start to go to more interesting places and hold their attention for longer.

    1. Thankfully the stickers aren’t on furniture or walls, mostly people.

      We have lots of farming play, and hiding in a den, but at the moment it’s mostly outside play. The conversations are brilliant now though.

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