What do you do when your 2 year old is naughty?

[chocolatestar]

My DS who is 2 years 2 months is starting to push the boundaries. I really don't want to be a shouty parent - I grew up like that and it was horrible. At the moment I try to use distraction and avoiding but we are getting lots of us saying 'don't do that' and DS immediatly doing it or doing it again. I have no idea what the best approach is when he behaves like this. First child, no clue - help!

you need to physically move him away, say he is touching the tv or a plug, right across the room. feel free to say no don't touch, intersperse with saying steady or careful

ignore what you can, praise where you can too

He does a lot of spitting out of food or throwing things when he is told not to. I do try to ingore bad behaviour and praise the good but I am finding it hard as DH thinks we should be tougher with him. I don't want to get into shouting etc though.

Rather than saying 'don't do...' which keeps the idea in his head and makes it harder to resist
Tell him what to do instead' can you move over there' or whatever's appropriate.

I have always moved my 3 onto a chair or out of the room- not a naughty step or a place to be ignored or even a punishment really- just a place to have a quiet chat with me about that not being kind or whatever.

If they bit or anything very physical then I did stop them joining in for a few minutes as well as havoing a very clear discussion about how horrid that behaviour is.

we started using the naughty step when DS was 2.5 so it may be a bit soon. but it really did work a treat....although the first time it took 30 minutes of tantrums for him to say sorry.

TBH i found the naughty step or time out as it's sometimes called as much as break for me to calm down gather my strength to carry on as it was for him.

my DD is 2.1 and I never ignore it if she's bad - she can entirely understand what's going on, and she knows what she's doing

So, for example, if she plays up at bathtime (like tonight) I told her very firmly that it was up to her if we had a good bathtime where she gets to play with toys and wash herself or a rubbish one where I dunk her in and scrub her and get her straight out

or if she throwas a toy or anything else she gets a couple of warnings that it will be taken away and then it's gone, if she continues.

Make it clear what the consequence will be, then do it and stay firm. More than once she has messed around with dinner and I have told her it will go in the bin and a few times it has. they learn quite quickly

I don't agree with the idea that 2 year olds don't have any idea of what they're doing. DD definitely knows and she needs proper discipline when she acts up. But by this age you can give them choices, let them make decisions to have a good time or a bad time

We also never let a situation go until DD has fully iunderstood what she did that was bad