how to cope with my 2yr old?

[milward]

My dd3 who's 2.5yrs is being so difficult at the moment & it's getting me down.

In the morning she has to hit & spit dd1 & dd2. They don't hit or spit back. She responds to nothing I say - I've tried nicely explaining not to do this, I tried shouting, I've tried ignoring. I've thought about time out - but it's the morning before school so no time to do this!

What can I do? She needs something immediate that will prevent her from misbehaving, something that she'll remember beforehand.

It's getting so tough for me - no sleep as ds4 is sick. He was sleeping yesterday & dd3 shouted in his face to wake him up - I asked her to be quiet & this is what she did. She does everything to make me react by shouting.

Any tips or advice gratefully received. Thanks xxx

any ideas.....thank you

have you tried time out? if she mnisbehaves she gets put in her room

thought of this - only trouble is we have to leave to go to school - so not really feasible. Thought of the naughty step but she just laughs at this one.

do she have a fav toy or dvd? if dd1 is disobedient continually then i will take awat her tigger and if she's a good girl and earns it back she has it back at bedtime. worked well for us and always works as a deterrant

Hmm i tried the toy taking away thing for my dd who's 3 next week it did work well for a while but after a while she just said "ok mummy i'll just get it back when i'm good" GRRRRRRR.

Having just read Toddler Taming because I'm no expert, I wonder whether her attention seeking can't be fixed by some one on one attention. You may already do this and/or you may not have time but the upshot of this book seems to be toddlers act in crazy ways to get attention. If you can give them the individual attention they crave even for small amounts of undisturbed time, then the problem may go because she'll want to please you.