Tuesday, March 2, 2010

she drives me crazy...like no one else

Are you sure it's the terrible 2's? cause Q is almost 18 months, and already she has got some serious attitude. This weekend was a little rough with her, and I don't know what to do exactly.

At what age do you install "time outs" for bad behavior? How do you get your child to not only understand "no", but listen to you?

She is really into "crying" whenever she doesn't get what she wants, or (heaven forbid) I say no. I know she is somewhat spoiled (I try to work on this) but her attitude has just gotten worse lately.

Is it the daycare thing? I told Tina (daycare) to not be afraid to say no, and don't cave in.

Is it the working mom thing? I try to have as much Q time as possible when I get her after work, and the weekends we spend a lot of time together...but maybe her acting out is trying to tell me something...I don't know.

any ideas?

6 comments:

Kacey Nielsen said...

You have discovered the secret no one will admit. It is actually the terrible year until they are two. They are such stinkers!!! Rhode is being nicer to me than Scarlet was but it is a really rough age.

We have timeouts in the crib since he won't hold still anywhere else. Someone told me once they did timeouts for the length of one minute per year old, and that has worked for us. So Scarlet gets 3 minute timeouts and Rhode gets one minute.

I also ignore him a lot. Nothing stops a tantrum quicker than having no one there to watch it.
Now we can all just hope the next few months go by quickly...

Samantha said...

It's totally true ang. I remember at almost exactly 18 months thinking "my kids are hitting the terrible twos super early!!" so no, it's not just you. And same advice as kacey- timeouts in cribs, letting them cry it out. Most of the time if I've already said no about something, I try to stick to my guns, especially if they are bawling about it, even if I feel bad. That way they know that they can't just cry and get what they want. (kind of sad/ funny that everything I say is "they." how weird that I had twins. I know it shouldn't be weird anymore but sometimes it catches me off guard.)

Kim said...

I don't have anything new to add to their comments, but I agree. She is definitely at the age where you can start enforcing with time-outs and such. We tried the laundry room, but it was a little too scary. Sometimes she would have a time-out on the chair in the kitchen, but that was too fun. There were many times that Elsie would just be screaming in her room (yes, she still does this) and woud finally get herself to calm down. Not to say we don't give in sometimes. I don't think Q is "acting up" for any other reason except she's getting older and getting smarter and knows what she wants. She's so cute and so good, so that's the good news. You'll work through these tough times no problem!

melanie said...

For sure 18 months is when the naughty age starts. But like Kim said, it's her getting smarter, older, more curious. I've done the time outs but for me (and you know I'm a hard A) I find that unless it's been hitting or biting, ignoring or distracting works best. I like time outs when they're a little over 2. I've gotten so much more laid back with Reed though, I'm sure my getting older has something to do with it. Just pick your battles. And only work on a couple things at a time, it's easier for you and her.

Sorry for the long opinion. :)

dirty>south said...

I told her to do all of those things.

Diana Collins said...

This post is so funny because I seriously have been thinking all of those things...about my four-year old...Don't have any answers, just keep doing what you're doing and hope it all works out in the end (that's what I do anyway. :))