Discipline for a cheeky 2.5 year old who argues that he is NOT being naughty

[starsareshining]

I've recently had a bit of a problem with this. Until now I've been quite lucky and not had to do much discipline. We now have a couple of tantrums which are over quite quickly but this is different.

If I try to tell my son that he's being naughty then he shouts that 'NO, I am NOT being naughty, YOU are being naughty' and then tries to discipline me . He slap me and throws things at me. I've read the 'Toddler Taming' book and have found the advice to be quite helpful. However, this is not an attempt at getting my attention and it's thrown me. I can't force him to listen to me and stop shouting at me.

If I move him away from me and explain that I won't let him stand there and hit me, then he thinks it's fun and will come back to tap me and then take himself back over to the corner because he's been naughty again.

I've tried ignoring the slaps but he hit me so hard today that he left a hand mark.

If I raise my voice to him he tells me that I musn't shout, I must talk nicely and that some people might be sleeping.

I tried to take some toys away today and explained to him that he could have them back when he had shown that he could behave himself, but he thought that this was really funny too and suggested toys for me take up. Then walks over to me, apologises for his bad behaviour and tells me which toy he'd like back.

It's as though he's just trying to annoy me! But I don't know what to do! I feel as though I have absolutely no authority and he thinks that he can discipline me for attempting to discipline him. Argh. What should I do?

You need to ignore I think. He is getting lots of attntion by teh sound of it.

totally understand your frustration as I have a 2 year old and a 4 year old who wind me up in the same way.

You need to become the boss again. Be firm adn consistent, and ignore where possible. And tonnes of attention when he is being good.

My ds does this. I think with him it's something he does when he KNOWS he has been caught out and IS being naughty but is too little to process the feelings of embarrassement so he just denies it and shouts at me that I am being naughty and need to go to the naughty step .

I just ignore it as long as he has actually stopped the naughty behaviour. No point in arguing with a toddler, you will never win and myds doesn't know HOW to stop once he has started if I join in or try to correct him it just seems to fuel his anger and makes more shouty.

Ignore, it will pass like most other blooming annoying things they do!

Thanks for your replies. So do you think that this is an attention seeking exercise or just something silly that will pass? It's not as though he starts acting up to get my attention, because he already has it, but if he can't have something he likes then he immediately hits me. Then, if I tell him off, he tells ME off.

I tried to ignore the hitting this morning and I just couldn't. It went on for about three minutes, constantly slapping me and screaming at me. It hurt too. I can't just let him hit me, can I? I think I will ignore his attempts at discipline though. Perhaps just tell him that he's being silly and then ignore.