My children have always been..spirited. My 6 year old boy is very funny and cheeky which had got him out of a lot of trouble in the past. A little grin and anyone would forgive him anything. He's very clever and speaks in a fashion older than his young years.
My two year old girl idolises her brother and is following in his footsteps. She is vocal and a very strong leader amongst her friends. Again, she is clever and often the boss as she is good at organising people and telling them what to do. For example, if playing a game with her playgroup pals it's often her who will be in charge of the rules and explaining how the game works to others.
Recently though they have both been playing up. My boy has been in low level trouble at school before for not following rules and general classroom tomfoolery in front of his friends, often spurred on by making other people laugh. This has become slightly more frequent and has resulted in him being kicked out of a lesson a couple of times and being sent to the head teacher.
At home he will fly off the handle at simple requests such as brushing his teeth or clearing up toys. He screams and growls that's its not fair whilst hurling things about and stomping his feet.
Bed time has become a real nightmare with both children complaining and avoiding sleep as long as they can. It starts with requests for more stories or more milk, then another trip to the toilet or some water. Then there will be some bed swapping and giggling. Once separated they'll just get out of bed to play. They've shut their doors to try get away with it a bit longer and have sometimes been known to stay up until we come up to bed at around 10pm.
We've tried routines, threats, punishments, taking away toys and privileges but nothing works for longer than a couple of days.
Tonight has been a really bad one. My son threw toys at my husband in a really threatening manner, ended up in the naughty corner and then cried for an hour before giving up. In all the commotion my little girl thought she'd join in too. She stood at her stair gate screaming at the top of her lungs for ages then picked a load of roof tiles off her dolls house and caused some serious damage.
The way I feel tonight I want to bag up every toy they own and stuff them in the loft as a punishment as well as turn off all the TV's, phones etc in The house until further notice. Perhaps if they have nothing they will realise where it comes from and that being good and cooperating with us is worth while.
Sorry for the long post but I'm tearing my hair out. Any thoughts? Please!