Almost 3 year old hitting me!

[CoconutBubbles]

Hello
My daughter is 3 in January and has recently started to hit me and I have no idea why. I'm assuming this is normal for toddlers and it happens, but I'm obviously not loving it!
How do you combat this? I don't like harsh punishments at all but this is obviously completely unacceptable and something needs to be done to sort this out. I'm a young(ish) first time mum so not sure where to start on disciplining toddlers!

A very firm no and move away. Talk about gentle hands and model them to her. Positive reinforcement when she does act appropriately. You can role play with teddies or dolls x

A sharp "No! We do not hit". And then naughty step for a couple of minutes.
But I am old school, don't know if naughty step is recommended practice these days.

She's learning cause and effect you give her the natural consequences and teach her how @Scutterbug suggests. Remove your attention from her when she does it and use toys to teach her the concept of 'gentle hands' when she is calm and happy so when you refer to them in the moment she knows what you mean.