Sorry if this is long..
DS (16m) and I staying with my parents at the moment on an extended holiday. We've been here 5 wks, and have another 2 wks to go. I'm now here by myself with ds (dh was here the last 3 wks, but has now gone home).
DS has been a bit of a biter / nipper for a while, but it hasn't really been a major problem until now. At home it happens once or twice a week, but at the moment, it's several times a day. It seems to happen if he's not getting all the attention he wants, or conversely, when he's getting lots of attention (rough play on floor kind of thing).
My response, at home, is usually to act very hurt and pretend to cry, and he seems to feel sorry and gives me/dh a cuddle to say sorry.
As it's been happening lots here, I've been saying no very sternly, and asking him to say sorry. If the person pretends to cry like I would, he will usually 'say sorry' in his way, but if they don't he doesn't appear at all remorseful.
TBH I think as soon as we go home, this will probably go back to normal, so I'm not too worried (but if anybody has a fab way of stopping this then let me know!).
The problem is, my parents aren't happy with the way I'm dealing with this. They started off saying that they would smack him if he did that again (if I wasn't right there but as it's a bungalow I can usually hear what he's up to).
Then my sister (she's 15) did smack him on the hand. Too hard in my opinion, and he was really upset. I went mad, and said nobody was to hit him. She said that she didn't think that I was doing enough when he was hurting her/them, but I said I was happy with what I was doing. She disagreed with me, but I said that if she wasn't going to treat him in the same way that I do, then she isn't responsible enough to look after him. She also said that my mum has said she will smack him (mum was there) and I said to both of them that nobody was to do that, and that it wasn't their place to discipline him in that way.
A day or two later, he nipped my dad, and he threatened to smack him if he did it again. I repeated nobody was to do that as we aren't going to smack him.
Yesterday he bit my mum. She didn't react in the sad way, so he didn't seem sorry. My dad was really mad and said that the way I was dealing with it wasn't working (hints of terrible things I've got to come if I don't deal with this now by smacking him....) and then walked out of the room.
What do you think I should do? Even if smacking has a place at older ages, I really don't think it does at this age. How else can I reprimand him? Any tips on what to say to my parents?
We're having a really nice time apart from this issue, but sadly this is really making me think about changing my flights home. I think I would apart from the fact that I'm accompanying my sister back to her boarding school on the way back.