‘Normal’ behaviour or concerning?

Hi I hope everyone is well! I have a 4 and half year old and his behaviour is becoming very concerning for me. We have recently got a kitten and at the beginning he loved him and was gentle but slowly he got more and more rough with him and gets pleasure out of hurting him. Yesterday I caught him suffocating the kitten under a blanket and laughing about it. He always hurts him and laughs about it and its gotten to the point where I’ve had to give him to my sister to take away as I’m scared for his safety- which is very sad as my 2 year old is in love with him and is so gentle with him! We have tried to explain gently so so many times but it’s just like he doesn’t hear anything we say. Now this isn’t just with the kitten, he is also like this with his siblings. It’s like he gets pleasure out of hurting them and it’s really scary and starting to worry me! No matter how and how many times we try to explain that it’s wrong he just won’t stop. He’s always angry and screaming I feel like I can’t take it anymore
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My brother was like that as a toddler. Chasing me with baseball bats while laughing hysterically, throwing my kitten down the stairs and laughing, biting and clawing and hitting me with the biggest smile, laughing when our dad spanked him. It ended up just being a phase, he’s a completely normal 22 almost 23 year old. Aside from being hit by a car and having to get brain surgery 2 years ago, he has always lived a normal life. (Don’t worry he recovered from that in record time!) In fact his friends often tease him because, growing up with two sisters, he is MUCH sweeter to women and people in general than many of them. I believe sports helped him work off some of that mean energy. Boys start producing testosterone very young and don’t yet have the impulse control. Physical activity is often the solution. Our older sister used to make him run up and down the stairs when he started getting aggressive.😅🤷🏼‍♀️

Keep holding the safety boundary. OK the feelings he's having, but hold the safety boundary. That might look like "It's ok to feel silly/mad/whatever, but it's not ok to hit/bite/be rough. Let's move away from the kitten/sibling and go make a safer choice. Do you want to [safe option 1] or[safe option 2]?" Giving age appropriate choices and consistently maintaining safety boundaries should help the behavior improve with time. This suggestion brought to you by BigLittleFeelings on Instagram

Is he the oldest out of all your children? What kind of things has he done to his siblings? What is he like around other children (not his siblings)? Does he go to pre-school/school? If so, do they have any concerns about his behaviour?

I like the ideas of the above comments, but I’d also have him see a therapist as he’s about school aged and gonna be introduced to a lot of other children as well. Since he is so young I’d tread lightly with the medical professionals because you also don’t want labels slapped all over or him drugged up when he just has pent up energy and testosterone like they said, but you also don’t want it to be something else that’s getting missed or grows into a larger issue that y’all are unable to control alone at home. Just explore all avenues to see what’s going on and how to best handle it for your son specifically. There’s boys will be boys and then there is a point it exceeds that.

@Neena he is the oldest! I have a 2 year old and a 8 month old. He hits them (more 2 year old, the baby only sometimes) he punches, pushes, hits with things, steps on them and kicks. He goes nursery full time but is absolutely fine there! I did have a chat with his teacher and she has no concerns at all. He’s never hit other kids there

He may also be acting out for attention. You can also try what BigLittleFeelings calls the 10-Minute Miracle. At least once a week, give him 10 minutes of focused, child-led one-on-one time to fill his cup. This should also help minimize the negative behavior

@Charlotte yess we think that too, but also I feel he does get the most attention not only from us but from the rest of my family (grandparents and aunts). We started doing 1 to 1 outings with him 2 days a week, so 1 day with me and 1 day with dad. Started doing this last month. I can’t really see a difference though

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