our (almost) three year old is a handful at the moment. he is rough and destructive and unpredictable and prone to tantrums. all of this i can accept as being part of the package of having a three year old boy. but what is really hard is that he will not listen to sweet talking or reason - for instance potty training encouragement like 'big boys wee in the potty' is met with (shouting) 'no they don't - it's yeuchy' or 'you are being naughty' is met with 'no you're naughty'. he also says 'ouch, ouch, ouch' every time i touch him when getting dressed or whatever. i simply don't know how to respond to this and it drives me mad! he is also extremely clingy to me alone (not dad). so my questions - is this normal and how should we deal with it all? i'm hoping it's a shortlived phase!