One of the “tricks” I used with my youngest when he got overly upset at something was to generally use a variation on the following theme.
“okay, you might be angry with your brother but you aren’t angry with me”
I always felt that this was one of my most powerful tools and it always worked until yesterday. My little boy is growing up and is now starting to get some of his own ideas.
I tried my patented logic yesterday, but I was told that no he was angry with me. I tried to explain that I wasn’t involved in any disagreements only to be told that when he is angry at mama then he is also angry at me too.
The next day my eldest also managed to get my youngest upset and when I tried to smooth things out I overheard him say “Bad Family”. I didn’t think that the teenage years were here yet, but it looks like they are at least one step closer.