Discipline Tips for the Parents of Toddlers
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Discipline Tips for the Parents of Toddlers
Being a parent can be a stressful time. There are few times more stressful than when your child hits two years old. Not only are they beginning to talk, they also want to assert their independence. This may equal frustration and tears from both the parents and children. While this can be a stressful time, there are things you can do to reduce the level of anger on both ends.
Ignoring the Situation
It may seem counterproductive as you would not want your child to ignore you, walking away from the situation and ignoring the childs tantrum may help diffuse the situation. If the child learns that banging their head on the wall will no longer get a rise out of you, he or she will tire of the hassle to get your attention.
Persistency with Time Outs
Many parents state that they put children into time out but they do not actually follow through. You cannot just put your child into a seat in their room and expect them to sit there. If there are toys to get their attention, they will not learn that time out is a bad place. It is a good idea to keep the time out chair away from the room. Put it in the hallway where there is nothing to keep the child entertained. They will be bored and will be forced to think about their punishment. If a child repeatedly gets up from time out, let the child know that more time will be added to the time out. A good rule of thumb is 1 minute for every year of age. If your child is 3, keep him or her in time out for 3 minutes. If the child struggles, add 30 seconds on for each time they attempt to get up. While a small time out may not seem like a great deal of time to you, in the minds of a toddler this time feels like an eternity.
Showing How Disappoined You Are
No matter how rude you believe your toddler is, he or she is not out to purposefully hurt you. If you truly let your child know how upset you are at your childs actions, he or she will become upset after they have had some time to think about what they have fone. Perhaps tell them, "Mommy is very hurt by what you did. You have hurt my feelings!" Anger and disappoinment are two seperate things. Anger is simply yelling at a child for what they did wrong. Disappointment is letting them know that you are sad at their actions and cannot believe they would do something so hurtful.