Do you stop your DC bashing things?

[blinkowl]

DS is walking around the garden bashing things with a toy snake. He's not bashing anything that looks likely to get broken and if the toy snake breaks I guess that's a lesson!

Would you tell him to stop?

It's really annoying me and I wish he would stop. But he can be quite a difficult child in general and often in trouble - maybe it's doing him some good to let off steam?! I'm forever telling him no, maybe I should just let it go for once?

WWYD?

(I made a decision before the end of this post btw! But still very interested to hear what others would do).

[minipie]

Depends on how precious the toy snake is.

If it was a much loved or expensive toy yes I would.
If it was party bag tat then no.

This probably isn't the right answer parenting wise mind you but it's the way I'd approach it!

I do think constant no tends to be counterproductive.

[blinkowl]

I quite like the snake, it's a cuddly toy - but not too precious.

It was more the constant whack whack noise as he moved round our small garden bashing things.

I decided to ask him to stop in the end because it was really getting on my nerves! I didn't tell him off, I just asked him politely to play something else. He said there was nothing else he wanted to so outside so he came in to watch TV so now I feel guilty about that as I've effectively stopped him getting fresh air in favour of telly.

I totally agree constant no is counterproductive. He hears it a lot though as he's very oppositional, and will keep on doing things long after we've asked him not to, or constantly badgering for things we've already been totally clear we're going to say no to.

I guess most DC do that a bit, but DS is pretty extreme! (Compared to DD and most other DC I know).

I know the balance is all wrong but it's hard to find thing to say yes to sometimes!

[minipie]

If DD is doing something annoying but not actually bad, iyswim I tend to go with "that's very noisy, you can do it 10 more times and then stop please". It seems softer than No (so I can save No for when she is doing something that's actually bad) and lets her keep doing it a bit but at the same time it means I don't have to put up with it forever... kind of a compromise between her preference and my preference iyswim?

[minipie]

Oh and if she then does it more than 10 times I would give one warning to stop and then it would get taken away.

DD is very oppositional too sometimes I think she wants to rule the world.