She is 17 months old and I know all she wants to do is play and explore, but she knows when she is doing things she isn’t suppose, like play with the outlet, or play with the computer, or climb on top of the table. I’ve started trying timeout because I’ve notice that poping her hand isn’t working anymore. But she seems to enjoy timeout. Does anyone have ANY suggestions on how to discipline a toddler?
#1 by Lesley on April 10th, 2011
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put her in thie corner..eventually she will get use to the fact that its not fun, which will make it easier on you.
#2 by Aleandria on April 10th, 2011
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Timeouts are the best thing, but it’s all about how you do it. Pick a spot: a chair, a rug, a corner, etc. where there is nothing for her to play with. Get down to her level, face to face and tell her “I’m putting you in time out for ___(1 minute per year of age) for ____(smacking billy)___. Put her in the spot, set a timer and walk away. The key is to remove all attention from her. Do not talk to her or hover around her. If she moves, you silently put her back, reset the timer and walk away, do it as many times as it takes for her to stay there for the whole timeout. When the timer beeps get down to her level, simply repeat what she was put in time out for and why it is bad, then tell her to say sorry, give hugs and then go back to playing or whatever. Be consistant! Good luck!
#3 by Theresa on April 10th, 2011
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First I want to say that every child is different and learns differently. I am a young mother of 3. My eldest is 3 1/2, my second is 16 months and my youngest is 3 months. In saying this, my first 2 learn differently. I believe that time-outs is the first way to go when disciplining your child. But remember that you must follow through on what you say. NEVER say you are gonna put them in time out and then you never do. And when you do put them in time out, you sit close by and monitor them as they are in time out (ie: if they are facing the wall, make sure they stay facing the wall) Other than time-outs, taking something that they like away will also teach them that you can’t do things you’re not suppose to do and still get what you want (ie: when my eldest does something he knows he shouldn’t do, he is to clean up all his toys and go into time out) Sometimes, yes a pop on the hand is needed but unfortunately in 2010 doing that can cause you jail time (sad but true) Other than that, you just have to “experiment” in what will and will not work for your child. But the main thing is stay consistent and ALWAYS follow through in what you say.
#4 by aayyeennaa on April 10th, 2011
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you can put her on her playpen without any toys on it TV or anything that could draw her attention out why she is on a TIME OUT…. I have a 15mos old son and having the same adventure around the house. What we did is we tape unused outlets or have a safety plug on the outlet, we do not put a chair in front of the computer when we’re not using it and as much as possible we don’t give him any chance or anything he could climb up on the table and when he fall down on the dining chair and hurt himself because he don’t want to go to the dining table anymore. kids sometimes needs a little accident to realize it hurts and learned not to do it again…
#5 by Tracy C on April 10th, 2011
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I used to watch children out of my house for years–just so you know I have some experience with this. 17 months old is very difficult to discipline, if not impossible through conventional methods. Children that young do everything on impulse and curiosity. She’s getting into everything because she is exploring her surroundings. Children learn through play. Everything to her is brand new and unknown and harmless. Trying to explain to her the complex reasons why doing certain things are unsafe for her can be like talking to a brick wall because she is too young to understand what you mean. Kids that young also tend to forget what you just told them not to do two minutes after you told them. It’s the way their minds work. They live in the “now”. Not that you shouldn’t explain, just keep the explanation simple.
First of all, you need to childproof your house. You need safety plugs for the outlets because you can’t stop her from doing this stuff 100% of the time and you need to make the things she’s getting into or on top of inaccessible to her. You also need to go over your house and check out any potential dangers that she has not yet experimented with. Some experts suggest literally getting down on your hands and knees in the house and crawling around to be able to see what the child sees–like that metal thing on the floor that she could shove into an outlet. There are quite a few websites that give info on childproofing. Doing this not only makes it safer for your child, it also decreases your headaches of having to constantly say “no” all day long getting more and more exasperated. You won’t have to if the child isn’t **able** to get into the things you don’t want her too.
http://kidshealth.org/parent/firstaid_safe/home/childproof.html
http://www.babycenter.com/0_childproofing-around-the-house_460.bc
As far as time-outs. The only way I was able to effectively time-out a child that young was to put the child into a high chair for the designated period of time or into a playpen for the designated period of time. If the child was able to crawl out of those things, I put the child into a crib (which I had in the living room). When you give a time-out in this way, you remove the toys. Whenever I tried to put them in a chair or in the corner at that age, they’d just get up and run around two seconds after I put them there.
Check out some online resources on discipline because they teach you how to do it in great detail in a way that helps you understand your child more, know when to discipline and how and how to reduce your frustrations and stress in parenting.
#6 by kitty on April 10th, 2011
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My son plays in time out too and that is OK. At least I think so. Re-direction is also a useful parenting tool. Your goal was to get your child to stop the behavior and you did so by removing the child. Success is not always in finding a way to upset your child (although there are times and places for punishment that does upset a child so that they realize the consequences). At 17 months old re-direction is often fine. My son goes into time outs and plays but I still find that they help. Even though he doesn’t cry in them and become upset, he does realize that he is being removed from what he was told not to do. If I tell him to stop something and he won’t I will say ‘don’t do that or you will get a time out’ he will usually stop, even though when he is in a time out he plays happily. He listens I think because he knows that if he doesn’t I will re-direct him to a time out. Even though he plays happily. Does that make any sense at all? lol. Even though he is not upset at timeouts, they still work. It is about you following through and re-direction, which causes the toddler to take you seriously.
Also, when my son was little, I would just say NO and I would hold his hands by the wrists when his little hands were touching things that he was not allowed to touch. He hated that. That was my ‘punishment’. But that was before he was old enough for time outs
#7 by Consider the Lilies on April 10th, 2011
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Your daughter is still really young; she does not have the impulse control to be good at following rules. A more gentle approach of reminders (get off the table; you could go boom) and distractions (interesting her in another activity) will go a long way toward teaching your daughter why certain things are off limits while still keeping your daily interactions (and your relationship with her) positive.