Disiplining a 19mo

[kitten2525]

Help!!!!

My 19mo DD is starting to really act up.

Everything i've read says that she is too young for the naughty step. Apart from telling her No and moving her away from whatever it is that she isn't supposed to be doing are there any other suggestions.

I work full time and it's really starting to wear me out having to deal with the temper tantrums every night. I need to get this nipped in the bud before it gets out of control.

Way too young for anything but distraction and/or move away. Sorry.

And it's just starting. Gear yourself up. They are called the terrible 2s but should be called the terrible toddler years.

Yep, it's just starting.
They can't really control their emotions at this age. You cannot punish them.
Just continue saying 'no', removing etc.

Yes, what everyone else said...and avoidance...if there is something she always gets frustrated because she can't have it/play with it, can you put it away completely so its out of sight. If she is always having temper tantrums at a particular time can you work out what is causing them, e.g. is she overtired, are you overtired, is there something in your routine that always sparks off conflict, can you do something different and avoid the tantrum.

Am not suggesting you lay down like a doormat, but pick your battles.

We do try and pick our battles, but after 2 hours of Mr Tumble we want to watch something a little more grown up.

I was just hoping there would be something else we could do. I feel like by just giving in i'm not setting a good start for teaching her about discipline for later.

'The Happiest Toddler on the Block' by Harvey Karp has great suggestions for averting tantrums, or dealing with them once they start. It's very good humoured and the approaches are based around positive interactions rather than 'discipline' as such.

Hehe oh I'm glad mine have grown out of Mr Tumble!

Just keep telling yourself 'this will pass'. I wouldn't beat yourself up to much about getting discipline cracked at a particular age. I think there is kind of a myth that you can get things right once and for all - like sleep, routines, discipline etc.. and then they stay right through the next phase. My experience is that each development phase doesn't so much build on your previous hard work but crash through it with a whole new set of challenges. So you have to get each phase right for you at that point, not worry that it is a straight line from drawing on the wallpaper at 2 to mainlining heroin at 18 IYKWIM

Agree with what everyone else has said, she is still very very young.

What worked for me was always "distraction". If you want to switch tv over for example, get her fav toy/book a biscuit, say "oh look lets play with this/look at this book". If she starts having a tantrum, just leave her and occasionally say, very calmly "oh come and play with ..., its really fun"

Hope this makes sense, what I'm trying to say is try to make her think about other things. 2 hours of the same TV show would drive anyone mad!!

There is a difference between misbehaving and temper tantrums.

DS was 18 months when DS2 was born and he started to try and bite his baby brother. He immediatly got punished. It was a naughty step for him for one minute. He hated it but the biting phase only lasted for a few days.

Whereas temper tantrums - is it because she can't get what she wants? Is it mostly at bedtime? She might be overtired. Although Im not a 'routine' person I think that at bedtime if they have a schedule and know what is coming up their is less chance of behaviour problems. Ie. we always do the same things in the same order - tea, quiet play with their dad, milk whilst watching tv (always the same shows) for half an hour, bath (not every night, if no bath they play in their bedroom), then they have 3 books and 5 songs. So there is no argument about what they do or not.

Blue love your bedtime routine, sounds wonderful.