Um, wow. This voice was coming from my seven year old. But enough about her, I think four is a very hard year for a lot of kids. I hear from a lot of parents that their four year olds are having a hard time adjusting to school. Or maybe they are five when it happens because that's when they go to big kid school for kindergarten. (Mine both switched to big schools for Pre-K at 4.) I hear about kids who complain about going to school, refuse to dress themselves, want to sleep in Mommy and Daddy's bed again, have separation anxiety at school even though they never did before. These are the signs of a little kid who is going through a little growing up hiccup. And it's OK to take a little breather on the growing-up-so-fast. A little bit of babying when a kid is feeling insecure and scared of growing up, while gently nudging them to be independent, can help a preschooler or kindergartener ease into their new role a little more smoothly. When we're all rushing out the door, dragging our kids cause they're not putting their shoes on fast enough, and yelling at them cause they're dragging their feet, sometimes it takes the wise words of a seven year old to remind us that being 4 (or 5 or any age really) is hard.