DCB and DCG are a little too close - I think is hurting DCG

[Alwaysgreener]

I have a siblings, DCB 5 and DCG 3.5.

I am worried that she can not say her abc, every time I ask her to say it, he starts in. The one time I tried when he was not there, she skipped and jumped around, not including all of them. (it not just abc, but others stuff too like colors, she will look to him for the answer)
DCG is a bit defiant with me. Asking her to put on a coat to go outside once was a task.


Any suggestion on knowing for sure?

[Indoorvoice]

I had this issue with a sibling pair. They were a little younger - dcg2 and dcb 4. He hovered whenever I interacted with her and often told me how to do certain things with her or that I was doing things wrong. He told his parents I was mean to her when I needed to redirect her or enforce a rule. She too, would not attempt anything on her own and looked to brother to do everything for her. It definitely had an impact on her development. It was awful. I ended up breaking up my play areas into "older" and "younger" areas and kept him as separated from her as possible. It worked until I ended up terming for other reasons. I despise sibling pairs most of the time.

[Alwaysgreener]

I had this issue with a sibling pair. They were a little younger - dcg2 and dcb 4. He hovered whenever I interacted with her and often told me how to do certain things with her or that I was doing things wrong. He told his parents I was mean to her when I needed to redirect her or enforce a rule. She too, would not attempt anything on her own and looked to brother to do everything for her. It definitely had an impact on her development. It was awful. I ended up breaking up my play areas into "older" and "younger" areas and kept him as separated from her as possible. It worked until I ended up terming for other reasons. I despise sibling pairs most of the time.

Yep, that is what I am dealing with. I cant split them, he is the oldest and will start school in the fall. She is the next and my dd who is 3 everyone else is younger.

[Rockgirl]

You can still split them for parts of the day. I sometimes get 2 or 3 activities going, and put them in small groups, separating kids who are always together, and put them with kids they don't play with that often.