I’m Too Little To Be Big: When Your Youngest Likes Being the `Baby`

I'm Too Little To Be Big: When Your Youngest Likes Being the `Baby`

photo credit: Monkey Mash Button via photopin cc

“I’m Too Little To Be Big “

This is what I have been hearing a lot from my 3 year old lately.  Each time he is asked to do the simple things: put on his own jacket, open his own juice pack or even close a door he replies with these words.

Am I asking too much of him?  

I don’t think I am.Why?  He may be 3 but he is also the youngest of 6 so all the things I ask of him I have seen done at his age 5 times over!

Yet this seems to be the scenario I am facing for the first time in 6 kids. That’s right the first time. All of my other kids were doing all of the above and more by the time they were 3. Nothing too crazy or beyond expectations. The basics of growing up: brushing teeth, putting toys back where they came from, closing doors, putting on socks, pulling up pants, turning off lights and TVs. They were all able to do them and willing by at least 3. Yet my little Buddie Boy? “I’m Too Little To Be Big”

Emphatically and with no regrets this is the answer he offers when his toys are all over a room as his sisters (5 and 7) clean up the mess. When he leaves his clothes in a trail from the door to whatever room he is headed to those are the words he utters when asked why. Even when I walk into a bathroom door left wide open after he uses it that is still his reply. I am beginning to tire of it and so is the rest of the family. So how do you handle it when your child refuses to do anything on their own?

Recently I had a little sit down with my little big 3 year old and asked him why he thought he was too little to do certain things but big enough to do others.  His answer? “Because I’m the baby” Whoa! Have I created a monster? I look back over how I have made exceptions to my normally stand firm rules simply because he was my last baby and I wanted to hold onto that a bit longer. Perhaps I have been treating him as if he was too little to be big? To my Buddie Boy’s dismay the time has come for the baby to become  a big boy and making the change isn’t going to be easy but it is definitely necessary.

Do you have any youngest sibling drama at home?

How do you keep the balance?

When is too little no longer good enough?

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