What is the best way to discipline your almost three year old?

okay, i guess this makes me the monster in the group... but i spank. not all the time, and we do warnings first, but i will not be given outright defiance and disobediance. My two year old son, like me, is very stubbern and will walk all over my sister, who won't spank him, but listens to me because he knows i mean business. he gets three warnings on items i haven't told him no before about, one or none on items he KNOWS are wrong. generally his behavior tells me if he needs a reminder. if he is sneaking behind my back to head for the bathroom to throw the roll of toilet paper in the toilet again, he gets his butt busted. but only once he has committed the crime. if he is just innocently playing and does something he knows he shouldn't do, i.e. pull the dogs tail, i remind him that that is a no no, and he gets the opportunity to behave with no recriminations. i don't like spanking my children. i don't think any parent does, but at two time out just doesn't work. They do it at day care and he just laughs at them and goes about doing what he wants to do. I guess if i had a less willful child i would probably hesitate more about corporal punishment, but i was spanked, and so was most of my generation. I guess the tried and true works for me....

Short time outs given whenever the offense happens. A three-year old doesn't have a long memory and if you try to discipline them for something that happened earlier in the day, it will have no effect. And the time out has to be short. A long timeout does nothing for the child. Once the timeout is over, end it with a big hug and no recriminations. Once it's over, it's over. Scientific studies show that nagging doesn't do a darn thing except annoy everyone concerned.

Although it's a sticky situation, time outs will work well if your kid is already well disciplined; You can also reduce any privileges for a period of time. Depending on how strict you are with them in general, they may decide not to listen to you. In the case that your child now has control over the relationship (ignores you, tells you to go away, swears at you), I would suggest child counseling if you would rather not give your child spankings or a smack to the back of the head (like smarten up). Hitting your child is ONLY acceptable if you are no longer in control of a situation and ONLY if you are able to control YOURSELF.

Hope that helps.

I use different methods. Ones that your comfortable with . I use timeouts after telling her no more than once. On the other hand Im not very comfortable with spanking my child. Its really whatever your comfortable with. After the first timeout or so your child will act very dramatic [e.g. feet stomping ] , But stand your ground and continue on with his/her punishment. After a while your child will understand no is no and that you mean bussiness when you do your punishments. Timeouts for my daughter is usually around 5-8 minutes depending what she did. Hope This Helps!

I'm not a huge fan of spanking or any other hitting of children. My son is two. Ive smacked his little hand one time, a few months ago for playing near the electrical socket. When he is doing something he shouldn't be doing, or something dangerous, I give him two warnings, like this, Don't do that, or im going to smack you. The second time, I get a little bit closer to his face and make sure we have eye contact. Works like a charm for us, and I dont actually have to smack him.

I have a two year old, we just introduced time out.

He already knows the difference between right and wrong, so it works well.

I dont beleive in spanking, that will just put fear in them...

If my son does somethng wrong,

First time: i tell him no, sternly but not yelling, slap his hand

Second time: I tell him no, sternly but not yelling, slap his hand, and tell him one more time and he gets timeout.

Third time: i tell him no, sternly but not yelling, slap his hand, and put him in time out... i explain what he did wrong and why he is sitting their (when they are older, you should have them explain to you). After 1 min (*he is only 2--- every 3 months i add 15 seconds) he is allowed to get up after he says he is sorry for his actions.

This works really well, you just have to follow through...

In the beginning he got up alot from his seat... but i just put him back didnt say anything to him, just picked him up and placed him down, then walked away.

You may have to do it alot, but he will get it!

Good luck... its hard, frustrating, draining, and heartbraking at times... but you can do it.

Time out has always worked for my daughter

in a firm voice say "No we don't _________" then place him in a time out for 3 min. if he gets up which he will first couple of times place him back in and start time over.

I say its never to early to pop them. Look him in the eye firmly say "No". If he does the same thing then say "no" again and pop his hand (not too hard, of course)

three time warning then a time out.