2 year old smacking.Nothing works!!

[Theonlyexception]

I have tried everything. I have tried putting him on the naughty chair for 2 minutes (with a warning),putting him in his cot for ten minutes after he smacked me whilst sitting on the naughty chair, talking to him about the smacking and why it is wrong,and today after a particular bad time I put him in the hallway for about 30 seconds with the door locked. But nothing seems to work. He thinks it's a joke whatever we do. Anyone got any advice?

I wouldn't bother with naughty chair or putting him in timeout, he's very young

you need to say No firmly and then take your attention away immediately

2 year olds are very impulsive and you would be better off watching for the signs that a smack is coming your way and taking evasive action

hmm

try this one....a bit of fake crying when he thumps you? awawawwa that really hurt poor mummy type thing and see if it shocks him? is he just two or a bit older, whats his understanding like?

dd who likes to thump her teddy and look expectantly at me and i always give teddy a cuddle and say be gentle with poor teddy (probably reinforcing this though not a good idea...what am i doing?!)

she doesn't whack anyone else though so not sure what to advise

I have a two year old with similar habits . I tend to do what Boys has suggested, a firm "NO" followed by me putting her down or walking away and stopping what we were doing. Can be a bit tricky when we are out and about though. I haven't tried the naughty stair/chair method as I also feel she's a bit young and I'm not sure DD would understand.

I've tried the fake crying thing but he just laughs at me and/or does it again. It's getting more of a problem now because sometimes he hits quite hard and it hurts. On the other hand, maybe I'm expecting too much at this age and this is normal behaviour?

If he's just doing it out of experimentation and then found that it gets him a really interesting reaction, what's best is just to try and stop it before it happens (grab his hand etc) and show him what you do want him to do (make his hand "stroke" you gently) then they get fed up of trying after a while.

However if he's copying it from somewhere he might be more persistent. (Not copying from me I might add)

it's kind of normal in that he has sussed that he gets MASSES of attention for repeating a behaviour IYSWIM

clever chap, eh?

you could if you wished do an analysis of when he hits you - is it when you are on the phone, when you are doing nappy changes, when you are reading with him, when you are going in for a kiss - to see if you can detect a trigger

it is a stage, change how you react to it and you run a decent chance of reducing the length of the stage

HTH

The key here seems to be that you have tried 'everything'. I think it would be better if you chose one method and stuck to it consistently. That way he knows where he stands.

Time out absolutely works at this age and with persistence it will work.

Had the same problem with my Nephew when he was just under 2. He used to hit everyone. His Mum used to say a firm No, but it made no difference. When he stayed at my house, I introduced time out, as it was not fair on my DS that he was being hit constantly. He gets a firm warning that it is not right to hit and if he does it again, he goes straight on time out (in a different room) for 2 minutes. No speaking to him, completely ignore him. If he gets off time out, then (without speaking) I just put him back and he starts the 2 minutes again.

It only took one weekend of constant, consistent, time outs for him to stop hitting. He still (at the age of 3) hits him Mum at their house, because she has never been strict or consistent about it. He does not hit anyone at my house anymore.