How to respond to naughty behaviours - DD1 age 3

[cheeseycharlie]

She's generally a very 'good girl'.
If she gets so tired in the day that she cannot stay awake, then we or nursery allow her max 20-30 mins nap.
She later goes to bed as normal but once we are downstairs she gets up and sneaks around upstairs doing very naughty things. Mostly just wanton destructiveness such as drawing on toys and clothes. But there is always one potentially quite dangerous thing too. The other night she put nail varnish around her eyes. Tonight she took the scissors to stuff in her room and we are lucky she did not cut the electrical cord to her side lamp which was switched on.

Usual methods of punishment are to withdraw treats for the following day. We also use a period of time out looking at wall (akin to naughty step) sometimes.

How do we communicate to her when something is not just naughty but also downright dangerous??

How do we stop her doing these things???

How old is your little one?
Generally children do things they know are wrong for attention. I have been a teacher now for almost 10 years, teaching everything from 2 years to 14. I have found regardless of their age they still crave attention no matter what!

You may have other children? Work commitments? Sorting out the home? I know from working full time and having a family the list of 'to dos' is endless!!!

At night set a clear routine - a drink and chat? A bath? Followed by saying good night to everyone who is there. When it comes to going to bed dim the lights and talk quietly, read a story/ share a book or talk about something nice that day. Agree (if your little one is old enough!) that today was a great day and ask what do we want want
Tomorrow - from there say ok to get all the nice things tomorrow we need to go to sleep. Say things like "you were so good today you must be so tired" and "thank you for being so good when ..... " "let's sleep now and tomorrow we can ......" this sounds like a very long process and the first few times it might take an hour or so but you can get it down to bout 20 minutes including bath if you really want!!

Then make it clear it is not ok to get out of bed! If you do there are consequences - this might mean not having the nice treat we talked about tomorrow (these treats should not be over the top! Normal things like their fav tv show, colouring time, etc - make it easy to manage for you! Also have a discussion about dangers - if your little one is under two all this talk may seem pointless but I promise - start as you mean to go on and it really will pay off!!! Just because they can talk doesn't mean they don't understand your tone or facial expression! Be clear - be confident! Remember you are mammy so you are in charge!!!

I hope this helps - oh and sometimes it's ok to let them hurt themselves (obviously not a major injury!!) if you KNOW they will learn from it! As on not to do it again!!

Thank you for that really thoughtful post Daisy.
Dd is 3 and has little bro ds aged 10 mo.
She is very well able to understand all this.
We do already do a wind down bed time just as you suggest, but the problem is if she has needed a little nap to get her through the afternoon she really acts up. She is compliant at bedtime but once left alone gets really hyper and monkeys around.
The day nap is only allowed if she is really wasted during the day. I suppose we should put her to bed a bit later if this has happened. I find it hard to see how such a short nap can make such a difference to bedtime! I also struggle to see when and how we would wash up, tidy up, and eventually have dinner if she is up with us in the evening but I guess we just have to work that one out...