whining, whining and more whining - how to stop it

[deaconblue]

It seems ds (2) is on his way out of the smacking/pushing phase (shoppingbags crosses fingers, pats lucky rabbit's foot and pops a horseshoe in her bra) but has now started bloody constant whiny voice phase.
Every time he's wanted anything at all today he's done the horrible whiny voice thing. I say "yoghurt please mummy" " percy the park keeper dvd please mummy" and wait for him to ask in a slightly less whiny way before giving him what he's asked for. But it's doing my nut in. Any other suggestions?

Whine back at him so he sees how it sounds then ask him to try in a nice voice. My two find this funny but they are 3 and 5.

It's astonishingly irritating, isn't it.

I have adopted a policy of "not understanding" whiny voices. As in, "Sorry, I can't understand you when you talk like that." It's amazing how soon they find a proper voice! Even at quite a young age. DD2 is not yet three, but she knows what "whining" means and can switch it on and off.

And they do grow out of it ...... but it takes a couple of years IME

I told DS (3 yrs old)my ears didn't work when he whined (and then just ignored him), so if he wanted something, he had to ask in a normal voice. Same ears didn't work for missing pleases etc.