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How do you get a 3yo to listen to you?

40 replies

AmandaPleaseDotCom · 19/10/2024 17:37

Mine doesn't seem to at all when I tell her to do/not do something. She doesn't seem to care about any kind of consequence e.g. if you don't stop doing x we will go home. She will just carry on and then we have to cut nice things short.

If I ask her to put something down in a shop she just ignores/resists/says no. If I try to just pick her up and leave she throws herself on the floor and makes herself as stiff as possible.

E.g. today I asked her to wait for me before opening the front door but she just looked me dead in the eye and opened it and bolted out.

I don't want to be constantly battling her but it feels like that's what our relationships becoming. It makes me really sad.

How do I get her to listen to me and do as I ask?

OP posts:
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Yourethebeerthief · 19/10/2024 18:49

@AmandaPleaseDotCom

Could you give an example of your consequences please? I really don't want to resort to 'we are going home' but often there doesn't really seem to be an alternative that she gives a fig about!

Yes, I'll give some recent examples off the top of my head. (I will caveat that he is very verbally fluent for his age, and I would adjust the complexity of language to suit the child. If you waffle on at them they will just switch off. If he's in a really silly mood I also simplify my language because it's like trying to talk to a chimp!)

Some examples:

Threw a toy very hard across a room. Not at all a typical thing for him to do and he immediately knew it was wrong. Toy was silently removed and placed up high. I said "I will bring this toy down in 5 minutes and I hope you can show me how we are supposed to play with it." Timer set, alarm goes after 5 minutes.

I ask him "what should we not do with our toys?"
Him: "throw them."
Me: "do you have something you'd like to say?"
Him: "I'm sorry for throwing that toy."
I reiterate how we behave with our toys and that if he does it again the toy is going away. Toy handed back, all forgotten. Swiftly move on to bright and breezy again. Engaged him in some play with the toy. They often do things like that when what they really want is your attention, and they always need a chance to redeem themselves otherwise it's not fair and young children have a really strong sense of fairness.

Some other examples...

Kinetic sand taken from the sand table and piled on the floor which he knows we shouldn't do. Sand table put away and I got him to help me with brush and pan. I said "we'll try again with the sand later and see if you can keep it in the table. Let's play with something else." Similar to the toy example, this works for him as he really wants to keep playing with the sand.

Out and about, I have a rule that he must stop on his bike or scooter if I shout for him. He always does now because he has had enough experiences of me simply taking the scooter off him for not listening. He will really wail about this while I remind him that if he's not being safe on his scooter I will take it away. He is very sensible on it now and always listens to me and stays where I can see him.

Practice runs help with things help too. I take him into shops when it doesn't really matter. I don't need anything. But I'll say we need this, this and this. No more than 3 things. Get him to drag the basket on wheels and help find the things. He gets to pick a yoghurt or something as a little incentive and the shopping trip can be abandoned if need be. Because we've built up lots of little practice trips like this, he's no bother in the shop. I avoid it as a rule, but if I have to take him for the big shop, he copes well knowing he will get to choose a magazine.

peterrabbitontvagain · 19/10/2024 18:50

I think at three it is also about teaching them about facial expressions, tone of voice etc. If my three year old doesn't listen I may speak to her and point out my tone of voice. ' Can you hear my voice has changed? That's because mummy is worried you are not safe.' If she laughs, I tell her it's not appropriate. ' do you see me laughing? No, mummy's face is very serious. You should not be laughing either.' And then I offer lots of praise. ' You are mummy's best listener. Let's do it again and you can show me your good listening. Wow. There it is, I knew you'd do it.' Etc.
I don't tend to use consequences such as going home but I do have consequences. If she won't tidy, I'll help her - this sometimes involves taking her hands and picking things up with her. If she runs away I'd put her reins on - or hold her hand constantly. If she fights it I say again that because she didn't listen, she must now hold my hand. Mummy's job is to keep her safe and this is me keeping her safe.
When the situation is over, usually in the car home, we often talk about her behaviour. What I liked and what we'll do differently next time.
Good luck op.

Yourethebeerthief · 19/10/2024 18:51

sunshinerainandrainbows · 19/10/2024 18:33

Of course you can; no one is saying you can’t! But part of giving advice is that not everyone will agree with it. Iff it was as simple as tell them not to / give a consequence it would be easy but parenting isn’t, and there are nuances, characters and situations that have to be accounted for. I think you’re taking any hesitation over your advice very personally and that in itself is indicative that you see it as a simple solution with a simple answer. It isn’t.

You seem to know a great deal about me.

It's not a simple solution. Feel free to crack on with your own advice to OP, rather than calling mine naive.

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about these subjects:

FanofLeaves · 19/10/2024 19:14

Re tidying- I’m hot on this BUT

We have a big floppy basket thing and when it’s time to tidy it allllll goes in that. On goes ‘time to tidy up’ by Dave Moran.

Yes I do have to sort it out later but
a) it reinforces that yes we do have to tidy up at the end of play
b) it’s not overwhelming with them thinking they have to put everything back in the right place which usually leads to refusal/meltdown
c) if I actually CBA, it looks tidy while I have a glass of wine and watch tv later on

DonaldJohnTrump · 19/10/2024 19:15

Megaphone and Wooden Spoon combo?

Yourethebeerthief · 19/10/2024 19:20

FanofLeaves · 19/10/2024 19:14

Re tidying- I’m hot on this BUT

We have a big floppy basket thing and when it’s time to tidy it allllll goes in that. On goes ‘time to tidy up’ by Dave Moran.

Yes I do have to sort it out later but
a) it reinforces that yes we do have to tidy up at the end of play
b) it’s not overwhelming with them thinking they have to put everything back in the right place which usually leads to refusal/meltdown
c) if I actually CBA, it looks tidy while I have a glass of wine and watch tv later on

Perfect example of meeting them half way. It's not fair to have too high expectations of them. We don't have one basket but we have only a few beloved toys and they are each in their own baskets: train set and trains in one, magnet tiles in another etc. It's very clear where it all goes and is easy to tidy. I'm the same as you and really big on this because our house is small. If it's messy we'll all want to kill each other!

BertieBotts · 19/10/2024 21:25

Have you read the book How To Talk So Kids Will Listen And Listen So Kids Will Talk? It's an absolute classic!

The original and the Little Kids version are fairly similar in their approaches, I would say the Little Kids one is a bit more up to date, but I read the original when my eldest was 3 and found it helpful then.

Also this course is great - it's free and each bit only takes about 10-15 mins and you can use it immediately. https://www.coursera.org/learn/everyday-parenting/home/welcome

Other tips from my perspective (on my third 3yo now Grin) are mainly to be proactive, control the environment where you can, try to see their point of view as much as you can, remembering they are only little and don't have much life experience yet and developmentally they are still tiny, even though they seem like miniature hilarious people. I remember when my friend had her second baby and she said "Sometimes I expect so much of (my toddler) and then I remember she doesn't even know what tomorrow is yet." I have never forgotten that and she must be a teenager now.

So for example if you're going into a shop, make the expectation clear before you even enter the shop - let her know if you're buying toys or not and if you are, what she's allowed to choose, this should reduce incidents of her refusing to give things up. Also, consider giving her a little job to do e.g. help you choose a birthday card for Nanny or choose what flavour of yoghurt to buy, help find the apples, count the drinks to make sure there are enough etc. Lots of praise/encouragement when she is being helpful/not destructive, too. If you feel praise is too coercive or you don't like "Good girl" you could try "Thank you for..." or "You are so helpful!"

And yes, have a back up lock for the front door that she can't reach. That's a safety essential anyway.

One thing which is quite fashionable at the moment is natural/logical consequences but IME a lot of people misuse this - first of all for a "natural" consequence what you basically want to think of this as what is the "real world consequence" ie, if a toddler did this action in a forest and no adult observed it, what would be the consequence. Sometimes it's fine and a useful teaching moment, or it's OK to let them find out for themselves - a lot of the time, it's totally useless because it's either something which is much, much, much too delayed for them to grasp (e.g. tooth decay from not brushing teeth) or it's not really aligned with what you want to teach (e.g. when Timmy takes my toy and I bonk Timmy on the head, Timmy will cry and drop the toy and I will get it back.)

So then logical is this idea that you must tie every single consequence directly to the child's action in order that it makes sense and feels "fair" to them.

Can I just save you some time - three year olds (and actually, most children of any age) DO NOT give a shit about this. When people are doing this with 3yos I tend to think that (well meaningly) they are either making a palaver over something which would be much simpler if they just had a generic consequence in mind, or they are making a solution into a punishment which is just a recipe for misery.

What I mean for example is, if you notice that your child is splashing water out of the bath and you don't want them to, you can just swap the toys for less "scoopy" ones or end bathtime, cheerfully - noting that, OK, it's the end of the day, they are feeling a bit tired and getting close to their limit here, time to move onto the next thing. Or you can tell them "Mummy told you to stop splashing, if you splash again I will get you out of the bath!" and then admonish them as you drag them out protesting and then proceed to have a miserable rest of the bedtime routine. This is a pointless threat IME because when they are this age - half the time they are going to take it as a challenge and look you directly in the eye as they do the forbidden thing on purpose, and most of the rest of the time, you could see they were in a splashy sort of mood so they're probably not going to be able to fight that impulse anyway, they're not learning a huge amount from it and it tends to derail the following activity and make everyone grumpy.

If you do decide to do consequences (generic or related) essentially, what you're doing is changing the balance of motivation. For example, my 6yo was winding my 3yo up earlier trying to get him to throw something. We are trying to de-motivate physical violence, and at this time I didn't think it was a sign that 3yo was getting close to his limit, so I reminded the 3yo that even though throwing is fun, if he threw the toy, he would have to sit in time out. He thought about it - you could see the cogs turning - and put the toy down. Then I said well done and reminded (them both) if they wanted to play a throwing game, they could throw a ball in the garden. That is a stupidly idyllic example and it doesn't always go like that Grin - but basically, whether I had threatened time out or the toy goes away, the effect would have been exactly the same. I don't think that he would have found it any more logical or effective if it had been related. Don't tie yourself in knots thinking every single consequence has to be related. Sometimes they just need to be simple and easy to predict/understand. If there's a really really obvious logical consequence then fine - but try not to make a solution into a punishment Smile

(And yes if you look up my posts from approx 2011 I am saying exactly the opposite thing - here is the benefit of hindsight!!)

In fact most often I find the most effective thing if I'm trying to get them to do a specific thing is simply to pause the next activity until they do the thing that I want them to do. That only works if you're generally good at jollying along, though. Jollying along is a key skill for three. (Or I like Janet Lansbury's word for it - "Confident momentum").

JumpstartMondays · 20/10/2024 00:53

I tell mine what I'm expecting and then give a choice. E.g. "we are leaving the shop. We must put back the {whatever thing} you're holding. Do you want to put it on this shelf or this other shelf?"

Consequences are natural and aligned with whatever happened, and always in the moment.

Wishingplenty · 20/10/2024 03:28

Crazyeight · 19/10/2024 17:39

123 magic but mainly just waiting for them to grow. 3-4 was awful with my ds but at 5 he's lovely.

Forget everything else. This is really the best advice!

Crazyeight · 20/10/2024 07:17

Fwiw I did try "how to talk so little kids will listen". My dc1 was a very verbal child and we could sit and talk through issues at 3 nicely together. I was a smug arsehole parent. My dc2 was a demon 3 yo. There is no way he would even let you get out the first sentence of "I can see you're angry...the problem is...." Because he would be shouting and screaming so loudly or just running for the hills, literally. The only thing to calm his meltdowns was a very tight pressure hug, time, and carbs. He would climb everything, run out of doors, climb out of windows. I warned nursery, they said he'd be fine. First day he got onto a book case, climbed it right up to the ceiling. They said they'd never have a child who could do that. I can look back at laugh now but it was horrendous at the time! Now he's a little older he has calmed down. We also found he had some physical issues with hearing that we've resolved but I think mainly he needed his brain and impulse control to develop a bit more.

sunshinerainandrainbows · 20/10/2024 08:22

I had the same with How To Talk. I know it’s supposed to be aimed at 2-7 bracket but I really don’t find it helpful for my three year old.

HollyTilly · 20/10/2024 08:32

Whisper to focus attention.
Distract.
Praise.
It’s hard work, made worse when they’re tired.

Cyclistmumgrandma · 20/10/2024 08:43

Many many suggestions of what consequences to impose... Yes, of course, consequences are needed, BUT it is far more effective to stress the positive! "Wow, I love the way you sat and ate your dinner" "Well done for helping with putting away" etc. Yes, it can sometimes be seriously difficult to find something to praise but it does work.

BertieBotts · 20/10/2024 21:25

OP asked about consequences which is why people are suggesting them.

Agree that it is more effective to focus on the positive replacement behaviour - also to think about how to set up situations so there is more scope for success, and reduce reliance on consequences. They can be helpful to underline a specific issue but they aren't that effective compared with targeted positive techniques.

Singleandproud · 20/10/2024 21:35

I reminded DD of expectations before we did things and didn't expect her to remember. So before we went in a shop I'd get down to her height and remind her that she had to stay by my side, not pick things up etc

Lots of "When X then....." Statements

I never used negative statements, and always used affirmative actions so not "don't jump on the sofa" but "bums on sofa but you can jump on the floor". Humans in general but particularly young children don't take negative statements well, we forget the 'dont' and focus on the thing that follows, If I say "Don't think of an elephant" then you think of an elephant children are the same.

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