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What type of consequences do you give for this?

My 4 year old is very hard on toys. Just in the past 4 days he has broken 3 toys! The problem comes in that most of the toys he ends up breaking are not his, but either his little brother's or sister's.

We have tried taking away priviledges, time outs, reasoning... I'm just not sure what to do. How do I teach him to respect other people's things?

9 Answers

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  • 1 decade ago
    Favorite Answer

    At that age children are egocentric. The best way to approach this is by helping him to think about how this situation affects people other than himself. Ask him how he thinks he siblings feel when their toys are broken. Explain to him how important mutual respect is. Some appropriate books are Respect: Dare to Care, Share, and Be Fair! by Ted O'Neil and Respect and Take Care of Things (Learning to Get Along) by Cheri Meiners.

    P.S. If the punishments are not working then maybe he just needs to better understand the situation and reflect on his actions. Their little minds are more complex than we think! :)

    Source(s): Early Childhood Educator, DePaul University
  • Sam
    Lv 5
    1 decade ago

    Kids break toys. It just happens. Was it an accident or did her purposely do it to make them upset? Keep their toys away from him as best you can, tell him if he can't play nicely with the toys he wont play at all. Also make him apologize to his siblings.

  • 1 decade ago

    Maybe take away one of his most beloved toys whenever he breaks something (assuming he broke it on purpose). He can have it back at the end of the day or in the morning--don't give in. Otherwise, I think you'll just have to wait until he matures a bit--keep modeling the right behaviors and try to get him to empathize in other contexts (e.g., how do you think the cat feels when someone pulls her tail? How do you think Elmo felt when Zoe didn't give her the ball?). He'll get it, assuming you keep trying.

  • 1 decade ago

    Take away all of his toys. Tell him everytime he breaks one of their toys that's one less toy they have to play with. Tell him if he can show what a big boy he is, and not break toys, then he can have his back.

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  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago

    Have you thought about taking one of his away toys every time he breaks one of his siblings?

  • 1 decade ago

    Everytime he breaks someone elses toys, let that child go into his room and take one of his. If he realizes that he has to give up something of his because of his actions, he'll eventually get the picture.

  • 1 decade ago

    You need to catch him being good and reward him for it in the moment. when you see him playing nice with a toy, use a high pitched, excited voice and say "joey, I am so proud of you playing nicely with that toy!! that makes me so happy!" and give a sticker or toy that you have previously taken away.

  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago

    Honestly, and I'm sure this will get me some thumbs downs, but my best friend had this problem with her son, so every time he broke a siblings toy, she got a hammer and made him watch her smash one of his. It worked and he stopped tearing things up so badly.

  • 1 decade ago

    tell him every time he breaks his sibling's toys you will throw away one of his toys since you are having to throw away his sib's toys

    and do it

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