How do you discipline a 2 year old who puts herself on the naughty step?!

[Jemster]

My dd is just over 2 and is becoming extremely challenging. She shouts at her brother and screams at us when she doesn't get her way. I need to find a way of dealing with the shouting but not sure how. I've just started using the naughty step but often she just goes and sits on there before I've even asked her to. She says "i go on naughty step" and pl

[missorinoco]

Still do it. If she sits there, tell her you were going to put her there and carry on as normal. She will lose the attention, and it is probably the negative attention she is after.

[Jemster]

Oops posted too quick!
She plonks herself down on the step quite happily so I can't think this can be very effective in acting as time out, she's just not bothered!

I'd be grateful to hear how other people deal with tge challenges of the terrible twos as some days I am at my wits end with her. She is very sweet though and there are lovely moments too.

[poocatcherchampion]

whn my dd shouts at her sister I normally tell her not to do it and then after a moment offer her a hug. whether she accepts or not she usually improves her behaviour and often will apologise to her sister.

[HappyAsASandboy]

I stopped the naughty step the day my son looked up from whatever I'd asked him to stop doing and said "it's ok mummy, I'll go on the naughty step". He had completely squared it in his head - he could do the naughty thing because he was happy with the price.

I now go with emotional consequences. I explain why he shouldn't do X, which normally includes a good dose of his sister or me or daddy being very hurt or sad. He genuinely doesn't want to hurt us or make us sad, so normally the behaviour stops.

[CharlotteCollins]

If my DC shouts at me, I whisper back, "I'm sorry, I can't hear you when you talk so loud."

:o

It works some of the time!

[Iggly]

Tell her to talk nicely. Model nice behaviour. 2 year olds aren't really easy to reason with

[Minionionionion]

Just wrote a long reply and realised it sounded shit.

Basically we do what works for us and we are all (extended family too) comfortable with doing.

Also we never threaten until the 2nd warning and then if the behaviour stops the incident is forgotten.

Naughty step is illogical to dd ... Like stickers it means nothing but is effective with other kids the worse thing for dd is to be ignored so we just warn her twice then third time the punishment is mentioned if it occurs once more she is popped on the floor and told no with full eye contact and then we look away.

[EssexMummy123]

123 magic and naughty step for a 3rd warning for us, for minor things - major incidents e.g. biting/hitting would be straight to the naughty step.

[MillionPramMiles]

The naughty step hasn't really worked for us but explaining that hitting hurts etc (and putting on a sad face, giving attention to injured party etc) and then if necessary withdrawing attention (eg walking away and saying don't want to play anymore as hitting hurts etc) has worked better.

In the worst cases we've used time outs (ie putting dd in her cot and saying she needs to have a little quiet time to calm down). The change in scene and lack of audience seems to stop the tantrum. Dd treated the naught step as a bit of a game and seemed to like the attention.

Of course none of this works all the time and I'm sure it will stop working at all at some point!

[Goldmandra]

I realised how ridiculous the naughty step was the day my DD got a drink and a book and put them on the step ready before doing whatever it was she shouldn't have done (I can't remember what it was).

It's much better to just tell the child what behaviour you would like to see and praise when you see it plus use natural consequences like "I'm sorry but you won't be able to play with x today because I expect you will keep hitting him like you were doing to y earlier."