Saturday, April 21, 2012

Disciplining a Two-Year Old

Little Man turned two not too long ago, and if the "Terrible Twos" really do exist, he is expressing them quite vibrantly.

Since he was able to grasp the concept of time out (and even before), we've used the Jo Frost "Supernanny" approach to discipline.
Her approach is such:
Warning
Time Out-Explain why they are in time out and leave them for their age in minutes
Ask why they were in time out
Ask for an apology
Give hugs and kisses

But now, Little Man has gotten plain old sassy. I can't even tell you how many times I sit him in the timeout seat and he screams "Muma! Shut-Up!" (Yes, I know that he's heard this "somewhere" before), or I'm "Shhhhhh-ed", or he just sits there in defiance and screams. It's annoying. He's also started to get out of the chair, at which point I've been restarting the timer.

BUT.

He RARELY is this defiant to his father.

So I'm on the hunt for a new disciplinary action plan.

Image borrowed from
kveller.com whom
 Mayim regularly writes for.
A couple weeks ago, I was watching The Talk on CBS and Mayim Bialik was on. I have so much respect for Mayim. She started as a "child actor" on Blossom, didn't let fame totally F up her life, got married had two kids, got her PhD in Neuroscience, and now acts on The Big Bang Theory. Pretty cool lady, pretty cool story if you ask me.

Image from glam.com
Anyhoo, when I found out that she had published a "Searsesque" book about parenting called Beyond the Sling: A Real-Life Guide to Raising Confident, Loving Children the Attachment Parenting Way, I was dying to check it out. I know that both Mayim and her good friend Sara Gilbert are both pretty "granola" when it comes to raising their kids, and I have been far from such, but I at least want to see what she says. Heck, if it fixes Little Man's crazy defiance problems--I'll listen to anything she has to say! I got a copy of the book from the library, sorry Mayim--but I'm quite a bit of a frugalista, and I'm starting it tonight. I'll let you know what I think! Stay tuned!

2 comments:

  1. Well, I for one am looking forward to reading what you thought of her book and if it helped you in raising your two year old. I also have a two year old and he started the terrible twos about at 14 months and is still going strong at 28 months.

    Mommie...Again
    http://mommieagain.com

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  2. Lisa, this is common behavior for children. I don't know what it is about their father's but they rarely see the behavior that mom's do. Perverse little buggers!

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So...what did ya think?