My 2 Year Old Won't Listen

Hi K. P,
I wish I could help. I am going through the same thing with my soon to be 2 yr old daughter. I thought it was because she is around me all the time. She is hearing the same commands all day long. When my husband comes home, she is an angel. I was also beating myself up, thinking I was doing something wrong. I read somewhere that this behavior is normal and it's a sign of love. K. please don't be hard on yourself, your not doing anything wrong. Take care.

T.

Hi K.-

I have a 22 month old daughter & also a 3 1/2 yr. old son. This age is tough. I will be checking back on this to see if you get any good advice.

My recommendations:

1. Be consistent with your discipline and firm in your voice.
2. Don't over explain "why" - they will tune you out after about 3 seconds anyway.
3. A slap to the hand for doing something naughty (like hair pulling) might get the message across more quickly.

Good luck and lots of patience to you!
A.

Hi K., my son will be three in Feb and we deal with sperts of the same thing. I think as moms we always want to explain why we have to raise our voice or tell them no/ somehow my husband doesn't.I have learned a few short sent... to go with making him stop that make what i say or what they hear stand out. like we don't do that!thats not nice in the same tone short (just stop)words and once he starts to get it and stop i find that i explain it any way but getting them to stop first is the trick. My husband can say very little get him to stop, never explain and still get love like he never made him stop. I'm trying to learn from that.

Hi K.,

My daughter will turn two at the end of the month and we just went through the hair pulling phaze. I swear she would stand behind me and pluck one hair at a time! The bigger the deal I made of it the harder she laughed, the more she enjoyed it and would start right back at it. I would be stern, tell her it hurt and move on. She would still do it but not as often and now not at all. As for jumping on the furniture and general rough housing she has a four year old brother who is teaching her many things.

I do believe you need to explain to kids "the why" but it does have to be short and direct or you lose them.

Good Luck and remember it will pass. Katie has moved on to poking her brother with her finger. It drives him nuts so of corse she is loving it....

Cathy

Hi K.,
I'm going through the same thing with my 2 1/2 year old daughter. I bought the Super Nanny book and she has very sound advice and great techniques to deal with this issue. She uses the "naughty step" technique and it works for my daughter. 1, 2, 3 Magic is another good book. It's about counting. If you get to 3 your daughter gets time out. That one really works. Another thing I recently read (in Toddler Wise) is that you don't discipline with anger. This in an opportunity to teach your daughter about right and wrong. Therefore you are correcting the behavior and bringing her back on track. At this age your daughter is not acting out in a malicious way. Her brain has not developed enough yet to have those thoughts. She's in the "me, myself and I" stage. She sees it and she wants it RIGHT NOW. I certainly don't have all of the answers but I do a lot of reading and most of it helps! Good luck to you!!