toddler discipline - how do you avoid laughing?

[lummox]

this is turning into a semi-serious problem for us. ds is 16 months and doing normal toddler things - banging glass, emptying bookshelves, throwing food, poing people and so on.

we're trying to choose our battles, and if we are consistent with a fairly sharp 'no' and sometimes removing him from the situation he does get the message that something isn't allowed.

the problem is that we are finding it really hard to be consistent without sometimes laughing at what he is doing. this just puts us straight back to square one. so for example, last night he was behind my chair poking through the gaps - cue me saying 'no, ds. don't poke mummy'. 'no, ds'. eventually I picked him up and took him to his toy box, with as serious a 'no' as i could manage. he then started trying to creep up on me behind the chair which was so funny that i started laughing whilst saying no. so he now, obviously, thinks that poking is funny.

any tips?

ahem - 'poking' people

no advice, just sympathy and understanding (and a smirk) from another mother of a 16mo ds

Thanks for that, Tutter. Looks like it's just us, then! Perhaps we should be counting our blessings and waiting for the terrible twos when we will really have problems!

I bite the inside of my cheeks when I really want to laugh but can't for fear of dropping my hazy mantle of parental authority. I often do want to laugh though

Oh God knows. I'm always laughing at ds3 (just 2) - he's very norty at times but I just have to laugh!

I try and turn away or walk out of the room for a min to laugh but the older ones always catch me and start laughing.

Yeah...try stopping a 10month old that just realised he has teeth and can nip!!!! my arm is blue!!

I usually change my face to a serious one with a rather strict voiced lowered "no!" It stops him in his tracks, but he sometimes finds that funny and then starts to giggle at me! Oh and he giggles when he breaks wind (do not know where he picked that up!)

I had a nightmare day with my two yesterday (and can I have a self indulgent moan that I only get 2 days with them in the week and when they are horrible I get all upset as I am now at work for 3 days and will not get any proper time with them till Friday? Sigh)

fighting and squabbling all day - horrid

but I had to leave the room for one incident as I was about to laugh out loud:

dd1:

dd2

dd1: my turn!
dd2: mine!
both at the same time: SHARE IT!!!!!

OO

Ds has just started to weep when he has something he wants taken away from him...weep, not cry, but weep as if his little heart is breaking! So now I have to not only stop myself grinning when he tries to stick a breadstick in the cat's ear - again - but also resist giving him back the scissors/corkscrew/glass/small chokable-on object!

lol, me and dp often collapse into fits of laughter at dd's naughtyness. it's unavoidable i'm afraid.

as for breaking wind, at least all you get is a giggle..... we get 'uh-oh' shouted at top volume and laughing...... no matter whether it was her or us

I really struggle not to laugh at dd sometimes. If I tell her off, she mimics me

Me: "No dd, you mustn't pull the cat's tail."
DD: "No Mummy, I not naughty, you naughty, no pull cat's tail>

Dd2 had me in tears at one point, dreadful. Aren't they lovely at 2 ?

But the sharing thing did make me laugh as they were obviously trying to do the right thing and getting all serious.

must say dd's funniest tactic at the moment is 'turtle'. when defied she lies herself on the floor, head and legs held a few inches of the tiles, arms up in th air and sobbs pitifully til someone comes to pick her up, you'd honestly believe she was stuck if you didn't know better!

My 2yo once at the Sunday dinner table - I had told him "No!" quite sternly for kicking me under the table. I could see it in his eyes that he wanted to throw something at me (a phase he was going through). He looked at his right hand - piece of apple pie - no chance of him parting with that. He looked in his left hand - cup of apple juice - no way he was wasting that either. A little perplexed look flickered across his face, to be replaced quickly with a triumphant leer, and then....he leaned forward and BELCHED into my face

Wheezing with laughter in front of computer now!

dd1: go AWAY dd2
dd2:

dd1: I DON't LIKE YOU!!!!!
dd2:

dd1: arrrghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

dd2:

dd1: WE DON'T HIT IN THIS HOUSE!!! >

I had to lol at dd1's last line, snigger.

Two is a fantastic age isn't it? Just learning enough language and independance to be really cheeky

thanks all - although i'm going to be reminded of these next time ds is doing something toddlerish and it's going to be even harder not to laugh.

i hadn't even thought about how much worse it is going to be when he can talk . will start reviewing the things i am saying to him now in the vain hope that it will be OK when i start hearing them parrotted back.