2 year old pulling neck!

[katygis1012]

Hello all,

So as the non too subtle title implies, I'm having abit of a problem right now with my 21 month olds rare but (when it happens) really aggressive behaviour.
Most of the time (pending good naps, getting enough exercise and eating well) he's happy and engaged.
He's affectionate with me and DH and really enjoys one on one time (stories, building things, pushing/pulling games, hide and seek etc) but also loves to go off and adventure by himself (which obvs means I watch him like a hawk the whole time but pretend not too!)

Anyway the last couple of weeks or so he's started to pull insanely hard on my neck muscle (I think it's the jugular! I'm not sure) but if he's especially frustrated he'll hold on to
It, despite me telling him firmly "no!don't pull mummy's neck" or other "no" descriptive requests but he holds on until I feel like my neck is going to tear!
It's ridiculous.
He's done it a few times now and all times it's when I have my hands full with bags etc and he knows physically I can't defend myself fully from his tugging hands! Feel so silly even writing this to be honest.

Basically want to nip this behaviour in the bud ASAP. My husband has had this once also and is fully over it already!

My dd does this and pull on my clothes so it strangles me.

I just take her off and tell her it's not kind to do that to each other and we need to use kind hands when playing

If she carries on she gets a warning. If it happens again she goes to her naughty place or has a toy taken away.

I can say though that I have just realised I haven't used the naughty place for about 2 weeks so her naughty behaviour is fading some what.

Someone else may have other suggestions but I think reinforcing kind behaviour and explaining why it's not nice is the way to go.

I find myself saying no quite a lot which is seen as very negative so I do try to catch myself and be positive.

So instead of no dont do that. I say something like why dont you hug my leg instead it's much kinder.

I also make sure she says sorry for hurting and give a hug and I do the same if I accidentally hurt her (toddler have a habit of getting under your feet at the wrong moment!)

Promote positive behaviour and if you find yourself losing it then count to 10 together I find this helps me to collect myself and also allows dd time to calm down or stop the tantrum