disciplining an 19 month old

[butterfly76]

Does anyone have any ideas of how to discipline a 19 month old when she is being naughty , i have been giving her a little smack on the bottom but it does nothing. She is too young for a naughty step because she doesn't understand what it means to stay on the step or she pretends she doesnt!

[destiny26]

sit her in her pushchair! for a minute for every year of her life with no toys or anything whatsoever! pushchair will go eventually so its not something she will need to feel to secure about. just a suggestion! good luck

[Otrere]

Alternatively you could try taking her favourite toy away. Put it in view but out of reach (including out of climbing reach!). If you take it away every time she is naughty she will soon realise that misbehaviour has it's consequences.

Also give her lots of praise and positive comments for good behaviour - even if she is just sitting on the floor playing, tell her how good she is for playing there nicely etc. Try and ignore naughty behaviour where you can (so long as she is not in danger), just explain to them its unacceptable and try not to react too much.

Misbehaviour is usually to get attention and if you can teach her that she gets lots of attention for good behaviour and no attention for bad behaviour, she'll try to be good much more often!

This is the approach I have always adopted with my daughter (33 months) anyway and it does seem to be working as people always comment on how well behaved, polite and clever she is (says mummy Otrere with a big head!).

Good luck!

[Sasha13]

Have to agree with the other two although I must admit I don't have kids so you may feel I'm in no place to comment. However, I see loads of badly behaved children where I work and the vast majority of them are attention seeking. Praising her for good behaviour and ignoring her when she behaves badly are surely the answer... if you can't get her into a pushchair (that you could then put in a corner of the room facing a wall so there's nothing to entertain her) just literally try ignoring her... no eye contact, no touching, nothing!

[hellywellywo]

When Edward is naughty we get  down on the floor so that we are face to face with him and tell him no.  then we sit him on his bottom for a couple of minutes and then we always ask if he is going to be good now.  if he says no we leave him and if he says yes we call him over to us, pick him up and get a big kiss from him and let go on his once again merry way.  we have been doing this with him ever since the terrible two's surfaced, which was when he was 18 months old and he is now 2 and responds well to this type of discipline.

[Adi's mom]

My son is 2, he is also naughty, like any toddler this age. There may be very few calm, obedient, non-naughty toddlers. I tried everything when he started pulling my hair and slapping...scolding, spanked him once ( which made it worse), explaining....nothing worked. The more the pressure the more they are irritable.

Someone on this site suggested and it worked wonders, just move away from the child and say i will not play with a naughty child, and start doing your own thing. after a few times the child gets the message that if i do this mom goes. They do try to experiment, and repeat the behaviour periodically, but just do the same. Beleive me, it is far easier to be patient like this than explaining and scolding. And it works. I have never believed in spanking and faled when i did it once. dont lose your temper....no point at all. JUst understand, that your child is learning by experimenting, some experiment will fail ( getting hurt, mom walks away etc) while other will succeed ( rewards, your praise, hugs, self satisfaction).