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Was taking them home after my five-year-old lashed out too strict?

31 replies

Ifitsgoodenoughforyou · 07/04/2026 12:05

Out at the park with 5yo and 2yo. They find a little car in the buggy and 2yo is holding it as going around. 5yo takes it from him and runs off, 2yo running after and eventually gets it back. 5yo has meltdown and is chasing him, before I can get there he has whipped him angrily around the face with his hat and shouts we're both bad people. I took them both home. I was calm told him we would now be playing in the garden because that was not acceptable behaviour.

5yo is under referral for possible ND so I dont know at which point I should be disciplining so strictly or he actually can't help it? Either way it's not really fair on 2yo.

He has now screamed for 45 minutes at home and has only just started calming down.

Was I too strict? What could I have done differently??

OP posts:
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noidea69 · 07/04/2026 12:07

think you have got it spot on there.

marcyhermit · 07/04/2026 12:08

I'd have ideally sat him out at the park so the 2 year old could continue playing, however if his behaviour wouldn't have been manageable at the park them taking them both home was sensible.

SleeplessInWherever · 07/04/2026 12:10

Agree with PP.

If possible, he’d have sat with me while his brother played, and told that if he can’t behave safely then he doesn’t get to play.

He’d get one more chance, after a break sitting with me, and then if it continued - home time.

If that’s not doable, then yeah I’d leave the playground at the first “offence.”

My son is ND, and IMO we have to teach them that aggression is a firm boundary, any sign of it and we’re leaving.

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ArtAngel · 07/04/2026 12:11

You did the right thing and calmly.

But 45 mins is a long time to be screaming. Give him some help regulating his emotions. I would say ‘we’re home now, Ds, you are not a bad person, but you did a bad thing. You are not a bad person, your brother is not a bad person, but when we do bad things we come home. I love you and you are not bad, but we come machine we do bad things. Shall we go in and have a drink now?”

sleepandcoffee · 07/04/2026 12:11

You did the best you could of done in that situation in my opinion, even with the possible ND it can’t be used as an excuse to hurt his brother like that . Keep up the boundaries and the fair discipline !

ILoveDaffodills · 07/04/2026 12:13

SleeplessInWherever · 07/04/2026 12:10

Agree with PP.

If possible, he’d have sat with me while his brother played, and told that if he can’t behave safely then he doesn’t get to play.

He’d get one more chance, after a break sitting with me, and then if it continued - home time.

If that’s not doable, then yeah I’d leave the playground at the first “offence.”

My son is ND, and IMO we have to teach them that aggression is a firm boundary, any sign of it and we’re leaving.

This!!

but I don't think you did anything wrong, taking them home, but as the 2 year old gets older he's going to become resentful of missing out on stuff because if his brothers behaviour.

Even if he gets a ND diagnosis, it doesn't change much, you still have to manage the behaviour 🤗

it's not easy 🤗

Bunnybunnybunnybunny2026 · 07/04/2026 12:18

ArtAngel · 07/04/2026 12:11

You did the right thing and calmly.

But 45 mins is a long time to be screaming. Give him some help regulating his emotions. I would say ‘we’re home now, Ds, you are not a bad person, but you did a bad thing. You are not a bad person, your brother is not a bad person, but when we do bad things we come home. I love you and you are not bad, but we come machine we do bad things. Shall we go in and have a drink now?”

45 mins is normal for a melt down. A child in autistic meltdown can normal
process 5 -7 words max. I used to sit near by on the floor not near the door and say “I’m here for when you’re ready”. Always the same phrase and repeat it every 5 mins.

I would have also made him sit with me. If he didn’t calm down or lashed out then I would have gone home as the environment was obviously too much in the moment.

Many children find the change of routine of school holidays challenging. Visual time tables can make this a but easier.

For out and about a really cold drink through a straw or a water bottle where you have to suck the drink out can be help for lots of ND people.

pottylolly · 07/04/2026 12:18

I padlock the misbehaviour(s) into a pushchair for a 2min timeout & let the other kid(s) play. I only go home if all three of them are being shits

Ifitsgoodenoughforyou · 07/04/2026 12:33

In that moment I can tell he's lost all control and can't hear anything I'm saying. Trying to sit him out would be setting him up for failure as I know it would make things worse with more lashing out and shouting.

I hear what pp said about 2yo missing out and I am very conscious of this!

You think you have everything covered and then one rogue tiny car shows up to spoil the day!

Will try the cold drink through a straw, anything is worth a go.

He's playing with his brother now teaching him new words like butter wouldn't melt. My nervous system is in tatters 🤣

OP posts:
BertieBotts · 07/04/2026 12:57

It's fine.

You can't stop giving consequences for bad behaviour just because they find it difficult to control. That doesn't help as it just makes them think it's acceptable, which makes it even harder to control. It also feels unfair to siblings if you are still holding the siblings accountable for their behaviour and not the possibly-ND child.

What you have to do is understand that giving consequences is not going to teach him to change the behaviour, so don't expect them to, and don't increase them because they are "not working". You need to work on the skills with him at a different time, when he is calmer. You might need to control the environment more, which might mean closer supervision and a lot of inserting yourself between the children or steering him away from his brother when he's in that more wound up state, so he can't hurt him - this is you helping him to control his impulses, so he doesn't do something that would get him into trouble. It can also help to ask everyone to pause when you can see a situation heading towards a danger zone and then be a go-between.

With possibly-ND children it does not usually work to let the siblings try to work it out between themselves. You can pause them both if you catch it early enough, and manage the interaction ie "translating" behaviours like snatching or shouting into the information that the 2yo needs: That 5yo would like a turn, and model how for 5yo to ask nicely.

Or sometimes I would stop the 5yo ideally before he could snatch, and bring him to the side, validate his frustration, and explain that there are three choices: He can ask 2yo for a turn, he can find something to do while he waits for 2yo to get bored, or he can wait for a time period I deem appropriate, and then I will enforce a turn if 2yo is not yet finished with the toy (which I will inform 2yo of if he chooses it). I wouldn't say it in that many words. I'd say something like "Your choices are, ask DS3 for a turn, wait for him to finish, or wait 5 minutes." If he chose to ask him for a turn, I would remind him that DS3 is allowed to say no, and then he has to wait, but only 5 minutes. Then I would help him wait if he needed me to by suggesting other things we could do for 5 mins and holding him on my lap if necessary.

Or if I had anticipated it early enough I might even be able to intervene before the 2yo "claimed" the first turn, anticipating that they would both want a turn at once, and be able to manage that decision so that they both have input into making it, but I'm there to keep things cool and help prevent it turning into a panic grab/snatch moment.

Yes, this is all very helicoptery, but for some children, they need this kind of explicit step by step teaching of how to handle this exact situation right now in the moment they are encountering this exact situation, because role play doesn't cut it as they forget in the adrenaline rush of the moment, and they don't work it out by trial and error, because they never get a chance to reflect on their own actions, because they shoot right up from "Not fair, that's mine, I must get it back" to a complete overreaction/panic response like violence or OTT screaming, and then in return the other child will often either thump them back or an adult will intervene and they will be whisked away which just increases their sense of not fair/panic - and by the time they have calmed down they have no idea what even started it in the first place, and have not practised any better responses so the exact same scenario will play out the next time it comes up.

You might need to be more proactive in terms of noticing when his energy level is getting more frantic and abort the mission before it gets to that point, which allows you to frame going home in a more positive way rather than as a punishment. You might need to be much more on top of structure and expectations than other parents are, making sure you are offering frequent snacks, drinks and opportunities to use the toilet or get physical exercise or have quiet time, whichever are the needs he tends not to be aware of for himself. If he struggles with sensory needs those might need to be taken into account as well.

If consequences are actively making the situation/behaviour worse, then you might want to consider whether they are causing more harm than good and whether you need to adjust approach, but in general, totally dropping them is a bad idea. You want to keep (fair, proportionate, clear) consequences but try to work with your child to help them avoid the behaviour which will lead to the consequence, rather than saying well it's not fair that they get into trouble because it wasn't their fault, but also rather than just leaving them to predictably make the bad choice and then say it was their own fault they got into trouble, if that makes sense? It's not their fault if they are ND, but they do have to learn what behaviour is acceptable or not regardless of it, and the adult bears some responsibility as well for keeping in mind whether they are realistically able to cope with a situation or not, and offering support when necessary as much as is possible. You don't have a crystal ball obviously, and you can't predict everything all the time, but IME you start to get a very good spidey sense of when they are about to kick off, so you can intervene early a lot of the time, or proactively plan ahead a kind of risk assessment of OK, we have a day at home/at the park - what situations are likely to cause issues here, and think about how to manage them and what support he might need from you. And all of this is exhausting, so any support you can access at all either for yourself or for him, grab it with both hands.

BertieBotts · 07/04/2026 13:05

Xposted but yes - if you catch it too late, then none of this is helpful in any way because they can't take any of that wordy information in. It only works if you spot it coming early enough, which is not always possible, but IME it can be predictable a good portion of the time, and the more that you can practice getting in early it really truly does help. Nothing is going to help once they are already in fight or flight mode, and a lot of ND children have a teeny tiny window of tolerance before they flip into that which is why you cannot wait and respond after the fact. A NT child who is using bad behaviour like snatching is still (usually) within the window where they can hear and take on board adult support, even if they need a bit of distance from the situation or a min or two to calm down, but for a ND child they have often surpassed the window by the time you're seeing that behaviour and any intervention from you will just escalate them further, which is why you need to cultivate the spidey sense and be prepared.

Conscious Discipline is a fantastic resource for in the moment help and lots of proactive things to set up. I also like Big Baffling Behaviours by Robyn Gobbel - she is excellent on the physical warning signs that they are entering the danger zone.

CaptainMyCaptain · 07/04/2026 13:22

I think you did the right thing.

Besidemyselfwithworry · 07/04/2026 13:25

noidea69 · 07/04/2026 12:07

think you have got it spot on there.

I agree
going to the park is a treat and if they misbehave they don’t go, simple as that!

if you don’t set any boundaries then they will never learn!

Mummykelly78 · 09/04/2026 12:43

4 ND kids here; it’s relentless , and defo need boundaries, but it’s dependent on situation.
45 mins screaming / crying is typical here, and we don’t engage until they are calm enough to listen. None of us are experts , and it’s really tough x get urself a cuppa !!!

ThisZanyPinkSquid · 09/04/2026 12:51

ND or not you need to have boundaries in place so you absolutely handled this well 👏

RosieRR · 09/04/2026 12:53

Sounds like normal boy stuff to me. My youngest used to have proper meltdowns. He's just need to learn how to cope when things went wrong. He was the calmest child/adult once he got the hang of it. Also could regulate as he only did it with us never at school, nursery or other friends. But then big brother wasn't there to wind him up!

RosieRR · 09/04/2026 12:55

To add, you did well, with your two. It is hard and tiring when it happens.

Casperroonie · 09/04/2026 13:18

noidea69 · 07/04/2026 12:07

think you have got it spot on there.

You did the right thing. It never feels good to discipline, but you must.

Growlybear83 · 09/04/2026 13:44

Of course you weren’t too strict! His behaviour was awful and at 5 he should understand that there will be consequences.

canuckup · 09/04/2026 14:15

Forget the potential Nd diagnosis and crack on

You cannot allow that to be an excuse not to parent effectively

Bunnybunnybunnybunny2026 · 09/04/2026 19:51

canuckup · 09/04/2026 14:15

Forget the potential Nd diagnosis and crack on

You cannot allow that to be an excuse not to parent effectively

🤦‍♀️ being an effective parent to a ND child often looks very different to parenting a NT child and takes a lot more planning and effort.

Noodles1234 · 09/04/2026 22:44

Spot on well done.
learning actions have consequences

mathanxiety · 10/04/2026 02:00

You did exactly what I would have done.

mathanxiety · 10/04/2026 02:01

Bunnybunnybunnybunny2026 · 09/04/2026 19:51

🤦‍♀️ being an effective parent to a ND child often looks very different to parenting a NT child and takes a lot more planning and effort.

Parenting all children takes a lot of planning and effort.

IsThatAHedgehog · 10/04/2026 03:04

mathanxiety · 10/04/2026 02:01

Parenting all children takes a lot of planning and effort.

They said a lot MORE planning and effort. Not that there isn't any involved with NT children.

How many ND children do you have?