Moms: at 4 y/o do you feel that a child understands enough to realize why they aren't able to do something?

My daughter is 2 and today for instance I told her if she threw her toy and papa again I was going to take it and put it up for a while and she wouldn’t be able to play with it today. She told papa “sowwy” and didn’t throw it again. So I say yes.

Yes lol we do a reward system for him which he likes and when things get bad we take away stuff. But he has chores and responsibilities .....

My son understood that around 2.5. He knew that if he bit someone at daycare he wouldn’t get to watch a movie before bed. It really depends on the child though.

Depends on the child imo. My 3yo is so freaking intelligent I have to seriously up my parenting game with her. Yes she would understand loss of a privilege due to misbehaving, and she would(does) generally listen and do the right thing if I tell her what is at stake...... THAT being said, my son (5yo) generally would lose said "privilege" as his personality is definitely more "do now, think later" lol

Deferent child, different parenting. 🤷‍♀️

Edit: just read your situation spurring this question, you totally did the right thing 👍

Yes. The problem is they still lack impulse control, so before the voice in their head can say “don’t do that, or xxxx will happen!” They’ve already done it.

@jujum @mamabear_of_soon_to_be_02 @mommy21angel

I just had to be sure I wasn't being crazy. My step son lost out on going swimming the other day because of his behavior and when my MIL found out she acted like it was the worst thing I could gave done and that he wasn't going to be able to make the connection. I also made sure to sit down with my step son and explained to him that it was because of his behavior that he wasn't swimming.

Yes they definitely can!

Oh they can my nieces act like that and they will tell you what they did wrong. They are 4 and 5

I would say yes I knew a 3 year old who understood that