How interesting. DS is definitely a "youngest child" personality and DD owns the oldest child persona, so we aren't like that here. I guess part of my uneasiness is that I suspect some of the recent surge in issues with DD stems from the fact that she feels threatened by DS, who is four years younger but who does certainly try pretty hard to keep up with her. I think it bugs her that he can read. In fact, today she was reading aloud to her and started yelling at him because he was reading ahead to himself/under his breath and ignoring her. (You can see how it would gall you if you were an 8yo who has always been a superstar reader and that was your pesky 4yo brother, whom you thought you were humoring by reading to him from one of his many somewhat boring ocean books.) They used to get along a lot better, back when the gulf between them was wider and he was more obviously a "little" brother. Now he sometimes beats her at games. Not often. But sometimes.
That's exactly what happened at our house when DS started reading and getting "smarter". DD gets bugged, bad. Especially when he beats her in a game. Heck, he kicks most adults tails in chess, she can't get too upset. LOL
