Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Discipline

I would like to know who out there has the magic discipline trick for toddlers? Or better yet, a 2-year old boy? Again, as I've said a million times, AJ is a whole new bag of tricks. Seena just didn't give me this much work when it came to disciplining. With Seena I did the timeouts and the occasional spanking but now I seem to be quite effective with a Strike 3 policy. It's keeping me from arguing with her (some of the time) and hopefully teaching her that talking back, screaming and throwing tantrums are simply not tolerated. Period. If she does any of these she gets a warning and then the strikes begin. She gets to 3 strikes and she loses TV time or a playdate. It's been pretty good.

Now, obviously, this does not work with my little man. He could careless if he got 1 strike or 500. I can't send him to his room. The boy loves the word no and has gotten quite stubborn. There really is no disciplining other than a 20 count bear-hug time-out. I'm convinced he knows how to count to 20 now because he quiets down right when I get around 17 or 18. By the way we're going he'll be the class genius and be able to count to 100!!

To reiterate my difficulties I did a spontaneous experiment the other day. During one of the ever increasing fights between Seena and AJ, AJ hit/bit/scratched/slapped (any, and or all of the above) Seena. Instead of my usual timeout I spontaneously decided to slap my son's hand. Not hard...just a little slap. He laughed.

So I did it again, this time a little harder. He laughed again.

One more time....a little harder....the little fart laughed again.

See!!! What is this all about???

So, please tell me what I'm suppose to do with this? Do they have military school for 2 year olds?

Note....I do say all of this in good fun. These naughty actions are also coming from the boy who won't go to bed unless he's snuggled next to me and rubbing my face ;)

3 comments:

Rebecca said...

OMG...this made me laugh out loud b/c both of my kids have had moments where they have wholeheartedly laughed at my very serious parenting techniques! I started time-outs at 12 months (which is not necessarily recommended, but Hailey would have bitten Matt in half if I hadn't done something). They work most of the time...I use 60 seconds as my barometer and my husband says I count too slow. Sometimes I need a time-out as much as they do! Good luck...I'm on the same page as you!

Anonymous said...

We discipline using the "1, 2, 3 Magic" method. My kids know that as soon as I start counting, the behavior in question must stop, or they will be put in timeout (1 minute for each year of their life.) We started when Cooper was around A.J.'s age - discipline had become such a joke to him, but the moment we got serious and stuck with it, he caught on. We also talk a lot about privledges and about how they are earned or lost based on behavior - watching a movie, playing outdoors . . . really simple things that are day-to-day activities.

Good luck finding something that works!

More than a Mom said...

Let me know when you find something that works! My son is also SOOO different from his older sister, and he's almost 2. He giggles in time out, giggles when I spank him, and his behaviors don't stop. But he's the sweetest kid on the planet, just BUSY! Two speeds, running and sleeping. Good luck! BTW-found your blog through Once Upon A Mommy. :)