Am I saying 'no' too much?

[Iamjustthemilkmachine]

DH said today that he's worried that half what I say to ds (10 months) is 'no'. I do it because he understands it and I want to educate, not just remove dangers/behaiviours, but am I wrong?

NO your not wrong but try and limit the no's for stern important things and try "we don't do x because x" instead or that will make x sad or hurt ect. I used to say no now my 2.2 year old shouts NO DON'T and points finger at people lol not funny at times. But I try not to use no or don't now and it's amazing what they do listen to and say later on so be careful not to say things you don't wish them to repeat. Hope that helps a little x

Well, sometimes you have to say no, but you could try turning your instructions into positives rather than negatives. So say what you WANT DS to do, rather than what you DON'T. I have a DS with ASD and it makes a lot of sense - it's ok to say no, but maybe he doesn't understand yet what he should do instead. Hope that makes sense!!

I try to say "stop", rather than "no". I'm saving the "no"s for the really bad/dangerous things! What do you do after you say no? A good thing to do is ask a question or issue a command, eg "give [desperately unsuitable object] to mummy]", and then you can give praise when you prise the item out of their hands they give it to you. It positively reinforces behaviour. My 9 month old sometimes usually stops when I tell him but I still have to remove/distract him otherwise he'll just carry on!

Its up to you what you do. The only wrongs are the obvious - abuse and neglect of children.

But educating them about the world is a lot more than just stopping them from doing stuff. Agree with the above about NO! for dangerous things and teaching about feelings being very useful. Also it gets totally knackering and negative to keep saying no about the bin, rather than just putting it in the cupboard.

I say steady in pref to no

agree that lots of Nos makes a negative atmosphere

try a bit more babyproofing, to remove the need to say it?

Or his first word will be no

I got sick of saying no too. I thought I sounded like a broken record. Can you find other ways to say no, like "that's not tasty" then stick out your Tongue and go "bleurgh" you might even get a funny little imitator.
Also show em stuff they can do rather than what they can't. It wasn't my intention but I've got quite an excellent assistant cleaner who is 18 months old.

Second the baby proofing comment....

Thanks! ok will try turning positive and will also do 'stop' instead of some of the 'no's. I wish I could baby proof a bit more, but it's a really difficult little house.

When DS said he thought his Dsis name was sarahno I realised I said it too much
I agree with others, try and find different ways of saying no without actually saying No IYSWIM

stickafork!!

yes, try to reduce no because you want him to really pay attention when you say it. try "not for babies" or "not for Billy" "ouch! will hurt baby!" etc

Nicer to make the house safe than keep saying no imo.

What suburbandream said.