Developmental Lessons...the Hard Way

I'm not much of a child developmentist. Worked for one once, picked up a little here and a little there. Having one child 8 and another 3 really gives you perspective on how far apart they are emotionally. My poor 8-year-old is going through this phase where he wants to explore the 3-year-old's boundaries. These boundaries belong to a very opinionanted, volatile young lady so you can imagine how often these challenges occur. During a particularly heated exchange between children and mother, which ended in "just don't touch your sister, ever," the 8-year-old (let's just call him Jakob because 8-year-old is too much to type too many times) made the observation that the 3-year-old (let's just say Clara, see argument above) always smiled and giggled while he was being yelled at. His impression, that she was teasing him about getting into trouble. My impression, how can a 3-year-old be that sinister? I resolve it to being she's uncomfortable with the tension in the room and she's trying to break it. Please tell me that I'm right because that level of complexity in a 3-year-old is just scary to me!