smiling 5 year old when telling him off help

[natbuzzin]

i dont know how to stop my 5 year old son from smiling and smirking at me when i tell him off tried the naughty step works for everthing else but not this took things off him and this does not work he puts his hands over his face to stop me seeing please help so frustrated normally hes a good kid and very well behaved :{

IMHO it is possibly nerves making him smile? I teach reception and this happens a lot. Sometimes people (especially children) end up grinning when they're nervous, and the more they try not to, the more they grin.
Can be maddening when you are telling them off and they're doing this ----> . No idea how you deal with it though - try to ignore it?

Just ignore it and continue talking. If it's nerves he can't help it and if it's deliberate he won't get the reaction he wants.

Perhaps you should ask him to tell you what he's expecting you to say because he'll be too busy thinking about that to smile.

I laugh when I am nervous. I laugh when I am meant to be serious.

I also laugh when I am upset or angry. It is horrible as it means people do not realise I am actually upset or angry. But that I am being insincere, or not that bothered, or not taking it seriously, or not upset.

So, I agree, it could easily be nerves.

My DD1 is 5 and was often liable to giggle or smirk when she had done something bad or if she was being told off. It was driving me insane, but a few months ago my mother saw me getting cross with her about something fairly minor and then losing it with her due to the giggling smirking reaction and my Mum gave ME a bit of a talking to afterwards!! She said that DD1 had clearly been upset and nervous and sorry and asked why I couldn't see it and didn't seem to be accepting that she was sorry. I pointed out how she had been smiling and how angry that made me and my Mum said couldn't I see that that was nerves and obviously because she was so upset that I was cross. I couldn't see it then, but it made me think. I started to completely ignore it and after a little while of not letting myself rise to the irritation of her smiling and smirking I started to see it as clearly as my mother saw it as a nerves thing. Funnily enough a few months on from me taking this line the reaction has all but disappeared.

So I would ask you to try and ignore it. It is an infuriating reaction but try and focus simply on what he has actually done wrong, the fact that you have justifiably told him off / punished him and ignore any smiling etc as reacting to that will just drive everything out of proportion.

I also laugh when I'm nervous. Drives my dh insane.

My ds laughs when I'm telling him off and it's def. nervousness. Unfortunately, I can also end up laughing when I'm telling him off if I'm particularly upset, which isn't ideal.

My solution is I stand directly behind ds with my hands on his shoulders and talk very calmly (and menacingly if necessary) in his ear. Works much better when we're both not dissolving into laughter, as it usually happens (him, then me laughing) when it's something particularly bad.

The lack of eye contact seems to take the threat and distraction out of the equation and I can talk without laughing and he can also listen better.

I only adopt this position if He or I am laughing.