Any advice for disciplining 2 year old?

[User24689]

DD is almost 2 (few weeks away from birthday). She has always been quite strong willed and has the usual tantrums however we feel it has got to the point where we need to make sure we are correcting certain behaviours and making it clear what is and isn't acceptable.

Examples of things I mean:

-hitting our dog. We've explained to her that this hurts him, she is lovely with him 99% of the time but will occasionally hit him with no warning, quite hard. Thankfully he is an extremely docile dog and never reacts but he is a dog, so it worries me.
-throwing food across the room when she doesn't like something on her plate. Have explained to her that she just needs to leave it, it's fine to leave something she doesn't like, mummy has to clean the floor now etc. She will immediately do it again.

• hitting me. Sometimes we can be cuddling and she will just randomly smack me in the face. I will take her hand and tell her ' no DD, that hurts, we never hit' and she'll do it again. She sometimes looks amused, like it's a game. She also hits if I pick her up when she's having a tantrum.

We have tried a 'time out' approach but I don't feel it works. Her language is pretty good and she is rapidly picking up new words. She definitely understands what we say to her, that isn't the problem. Is this normal behaviour and what's the best approach to deal with it? Any advice welcome!

Not sure how helpful this will be as everyone's parenting approach is different and it sounds like you've got a patient approach which is great....

With the dog, I would immediately remove her from the situation ie take her aeay from the dog or vice versa and hope she soon gets the message, try not to be too vocal just in case she is doing it necause she enjoys the reaction if that makes sense.

Same with the food - if sje throws food take it away - by all means give her a warning - if you throw food one more time i will take it away as it must mean you aren't hungry. Always follow through, I'm sure you do this anyway but never make an empty threat is my rule - they soon learn you're not taking and of their crap!

Not sure about the hitting but I always think the best approach is to ignore the good and praise the bad - if she randomly hits you, don't even look at her just leave!

Not sure if you'll get anything from that but maybe some might be helpful - I only ever had to do time out a handful of times because my ds hates being on his own or excluded from things so just the mere threat of it is enough.... and actually, because I never make empty threats, I only ever have to start counting to 3 and he immediately toes whatever line I'm asking...

This may have sounded like a stealth boast but I promise that wasn't my intention! Im brief: removal from the situation and never make empty threats!

1. Hitting the dog, I'd remove the dog to another room, spending time making a huge fuss of him and settling him so that the attention is taken away from her for a couple of minutes, then tell her "Rover will come back when you have kind hands!"
2. Food, serve tiny amounts at a time so clearing up is minimal. Then when she throws say "OK lunch is finished now" and lift her down. I'd also start a small instant reward system (sticker, small sweet, five minutes iPad time) each time she remembers to say "finished" and give you her plate rather than throw it to end a meal.
3. Hitting, say "no" firmly then move away quietly to do a job or pick up a book. Five minutes away should give her the message that you don't want to spend time with people who hurt you.

Good luck, it's a tough phase but it doesn't last forever!

The book 'No bad kids' by Janet Lansbury is good. She also has podcasts and YouTube videos too.