Your Defiant Child

Those terrible twos! Once upon a time my daughter was an angel pretty much all the time…then one day she morphed into a demon. Just this morning she had a demonic moment because I had cut her piece of toast and she wanted a yellow plate. She has gotten incredibly defiant, so I was thrilled when I signed on to the computer this morning and saw an article from Parenting Magazine on defiance and the 5 ways of dealing with the “you can’t make me” attitude.
In a nutshell…the ways are:
1. Remove him/her from the situation- without ANY hesitation.
2. Create consequences. Make sure to find a threat that matters to your child. Parenting magazine is a little harsh on this subject…I don’t think most 2 year olds would quite get their tactics. (See article for details)
3. Empathy- always important because I think sometimes we forget that maybe they are just tired and frustrated.
4. Countdown. BUT you have to really mean it. This tactic works pretty well with my little one. AND no counting to 20.
5. Do Nothing. Sometimes the best thing is to just ignore it because in some situations nothing will work -i.e. your kid is overly tired. Your child will deal with it themselves.

For the full article click here!
http://www.parenting.com/parenting/article/0,19840,1168793,00.html

Whatever way you handle the situation, always approach your child with love and understanding. (or at least a degree of it!) Don’t be that awful mom at the supermarket yelling and swatting at their child.