J.K.
My children are all strong willed (except for one who was always compliant =) and now I have an even more strong willed 18 month old. I think because he's the youngest of 5 and my older 4 are MUCH older (8, 11, 16, 18) he thinks he can rule the roost. We stay on top of discipline and training but still have a hard time managing his bad behavior. =) When he's good, he's so good, smart and adorable. But when he's bad, he's very hard to handle no matter what we do. I found that doing two forms of discipline at a time really works. We've been having trouble with him screaming at the top of his lungs. We've been dealing with this for months (since May) and although we can manage it we can't get rid of this habit. So yesterday I gave him two swats, said firmly "Don't scream" and put him in his crib for two minutes. I set the timer and he screamed for the whole two minutes. I went in his room, and told him why he got in trouble, had him give me a hug and say "sorry" and brought him downstairs to play. I only had to do that 3 times and he never screamed again, yesterday. This morning, he screamed once and I did this and that's been it. He hasn't screamed since. Which is a miracle because that's how he's been trying to control us for months. He's been screaming like crazy to get his way etc. but once I started doing two forms of discipline, it has really made a dramatic difference and he's so much happier. I wish you the best!