Having two children that are close in age can always cause some issues. When the older one gets to an age that they realize they are no longer the center of attention, they are not afraid to express their feelings. They can do this many different ways such as, throwing a temper tantrum in a public place, shoving and pushing the younger sibling and even being just plain mean to the other.

Even though you may feel that you need to explain what is going on with the older sibling, don’t. They are not going to understand for one and second, you need to put your foot down and let them know that you are still the mommy and the adult. Just simply make your point short and sweet.

It is also very important that you set down some ground rules. Let the older sibling know that hitting and pushing is not acceptable behavior. Also let them know that they cannot tease and be mean as well. By talking with the older child, it will help them to stop and think before they act the next time around.

You also don’t want to make it a big deal if the older one lashes out at the younger one. This is normal and to be expected. They are trying to get a rise out of you even if it is a negative one. Simply ignore the bad actions and make the younger one feel better.

Other things you can do to make the older child feel better is to give praise where praise is due. If the older child does something good, let them know about it right away. This will let the older one know that you are paying attention to what they do as well.

Some other things that you can do are to give the older sibling attention that is positive even when they want to be the baby, make sure you set special time aside for the older one so that they know you still want that quality time just for them and get your spouse to spend time with the older one so that you can have special time with the baby.