Toddler jealous of baby brother
My kids are almost exactly two years apart. My two year old was an absolute angel for the first 6 months or so when her baby brother joined our family and we had relatively few problems. Once he started becoming mobile things changed 180 and she has become so jealous and angry towards him it's unbearable. He's now 9 months and it's gotten to the point where she has a complete meltdown for up to 40 mins if I need to attend to her brother for anything, especially giving him his bottle. She also yells at him if he starts crawling towards her or towards any of the things she is playing with.. I am working on teaching her "sharing" and taking turns with toys.. If she is playing with something that she doesn't want her brother to destroy she needs to move it to her room where he can't get it otherwise the living room is a free play area. However, we have a lot of work to do in this area as her brother only wants to destroy anything and everything she is playing with and it's very difficult 🤦🏼♀️
The part I'm struggling with most is the jealousy when I need to go to him. I make an effort to have one and one with her every day and give her my undivided attention during this play time together, sometimes up to an hour depending how long her brother naps. But it's never enough.. when he wakes crying I don't have time to sit and gentle parent her, I need to go attend to him and this is a huge issue for her. I try explaining in advance that I need to go get her brother when he wakes but that also doesn't seem to help.
Does anyone have any advice or tips on how to get through this period? I'm also interested in book recommendations for her and I! Thank you!!
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