So my 5 year old has been driving me crazy lately. Every time someone comes over - no matter who it is, she does anything possible to get attention. Dancing, singing, not sharing, being mean, hitting friends, jumping on furniture --- anything possible, good and bad to get attention. She is NOT attention starved at home. She has a 1year old sister that is into everything, so I am always hovering around her.

What do I do about these episodes?

Send her to her room and away from company. Keep putting her back in each time she acts up. Remind her of the rules before guests arrive.

I agree...go over the rules with her, and keep it simple. I would suggest a word to let her know she's "on notice", with the understanding that if she doesn't reign it in she'll be separated from everyone for 5 minutes and then given the chance to come back and behave appropriately.

Another approach might be to appeal to the big sister angle. Explain you need a helper when you have company to keep an eye on the baby, and set a good example for her and she is the deputy!

Good luck!

Good advice.

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I agree. Make sure you are consistent with it too, otherwise the acting out will probably get worse. If you put her in her room and she throws a tantrum, banging on the door, etc, tell her that her 5 minutes start the instant that she is in her room quietly, not just in her room. I had issues with my almost 4 year old over this, he thought that it meant from the instant he was in his room and he would continue carrying on and being disruptive. He found out very quickly that pounding on his door for 10 minutes set him back a lot longer than the 4 minutes of quiet chillout time he would've been in for had he gone to his room quietly! Also, maybe tell her that if she behaves while the guest is in your home she can have the time the guest is preparing to leave (putting on shoes or coat or whatever) to sing the person a song or show them a dance of hers. That way she knows she must behave the whole time in order to have the guest's attention at the end of the visit. Good luck, it's a hard age to deal with!

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if it's a playdate and she's acting up, yes, I would do the timeout .
If you have an adult over and you know she won't be getting attention for awhile I would make sure she is set up with something she hasn't done in awhile.. playdough, new markers and stickers, or a video. Let her know that if she needs something she needs to come and say "excuse me". If she blows that then do the time out. To us going to your room is to interesting.. my kids had to sit on the bottom of the stairs 'cause they only face the door.

We've also done the "5" rule with a chart. When he was being naughty he had until I counted to 5 to stop. If he stopped before then there were no consequences. At the end of the day he would receive a star on a chart. (10 stars he received an action figure he wanted.) If I reached 5 during the day there was no star. We did this 2x and it got things under control quickly.

When my son was about 3 he started having huge fits over nothing. I videotaped it and had him watch it. Even at that age he was horrified. I told him I was going to show it to everyone and he was very upset. After that if he started to act up all I had to say was that I was going to go get the camera and he would stop.

Be firm and consistent. He was a terror at 2/3 but now at 5 gives me very lilttle trouble.

Good luck!

I remember one of mine doing this, maybe both, but it passed pretty quickly when I didn't let them get away with it. They always acted up when it was the inlaws too, made me look bad in front ot them of course.

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