Terrible Twos

Melanie - posted on 02/24/2010

4 sale ad!!!!!!!! I'm so kidding.. I have a 2 1/2 year old son and he has been going through the terrible two's also. The best advice i have is ignoring like the last lady said. That has worked for me, time out in a quite room, and refusing what he wants...Taking the favorite toys away didn't work, if your child is anything like mine, they have 1000's of other toys and will just go get another toy and play. Another thing i have done is shut his bedroom door and sit and listen to him outside it while he throws his fit. I wait 10-20 mins. walk back in and he is asleep... Ahhhhh now that's what i'm talking about

Lucy - posted on 02/20/2010

I agree with the others that the unacceptable behaviour needs to be met with a discipline system eg, time out, toy confiscation. But I also think it would be good to tackle your daughter's frustration about not being able to communicate easily, as this may reduce the behaviour. Maybe you could learn and teach your daughter some signing (makaton is a nice simple form for kids and babies to pick up) so she can express herself more easily while her speech catches up?

Lora - posted on 02/18/2010

This is going to sound absolutely crazy, but I swear it works. It worked with my first child, who is now 16, and now I'm going through the terrible twos again... I have tried the time-outs, sending him to his room, taking toys away and all of that. Nothing seemed to work until one day, I decided that I just couldn't deal anymore. I was stressed to the limit and out of options. So, I ignored the behavior. I started humming and walked away. My oldest son finally sat on the floor and started crying because he wasn't getting attention. Then, once he got over it, he came over and hugged me. I, of course, didn't ignore that behavior, but made a huge deal out of it. I think feeding good behaviors and not allowing the bad behaviors to get attention can sometimes be helpful. Every child is different, but my sons seemed to have had the same two year-old mentality.

N - posted on 02/18/2010

We had a lot of biting issues and tried a number of things. We have found a combination of things has worked great for us - we use 'the wall' which is the side of the pantry as a time out spot (a lot easier to find a wall if you are out and about for a time out and that way you dont have to take a naughty chair or mat!) and then after his time out we have him look at us, while holding him at his shoulders, tell him what he has done wrong and then have him repeat a simple phrase back to us, eg No biting. We have him say 3 times and this seems to be working great for us... worth a try!

Alyssa - posted on 02/15/2010

Hello Lacey!



My son has gone through this stage to some extent and there was nothing that we did to help it. I finally just started taking his favorite toys away and putting them on top of the TV stand when he hit or mouthed off. I left it there all day and he would be so upset but it worked. I would calmly get down to his level and tell him that if he continues to hit and mouth off to me, I will keep putting toys up there. It's slowed down quite a bit so maybe this will work for you too. It took about a week before I started seeing a change.



Hope this helps and hang in there! :-)



Alyssa M.

www.4theLoveofMyFamily.com