My daughter is 18 months and does not listen to me. When she goes to do something she knows she should not she will look at me first knowing it is wrong. I will say No, don't do that. and she does it anyway. Most things are for her own safety so I want her to listen to me. I have tried putting her in timeout for about a minute. I put her in the crib since she will not stay anywhere else. She is fine with it though, it does not bother her. And when I walk in to get her she just smiles. I don't know how to teach her that she needs to listen to me or if she can even understand at this age. I'm sure she does because like I said she will turn and look at me before she does it. Any advice? Thanks!
Don't tell her what she can't do - tell her what she can do. She's a little young to understand time outs, but it's is diverting her. Be patient as you can. 6 more months or so and 'No!' will be her favorite word. Every toddler goes through that stage.
Just keep doing timeouts. You can put her on the last step or just on the floor somewhere. The only thing that works is consistency. You have to do it over and over again. They get it, they are just testing you and will always try to test you. You have to just keep putting her back in the time out spot until she realizes she is not getting out of it. Good luck. Discipline is the hardest part of being a parent.
I use to be a director in the daycare field and now run a babysitting business. Try redirection. For example lets say she wants to climb on a chair redirect her to something she can climb on like a climbing toy if you have one or take her to the sink with a step stool and tell her she can climb and wash her hands.
Example if you have a biter you teach the kids what they can bite and what they can't instead of sticking your finger in their face and saying No bite. Make a book of pictures of things from books and magazine of what you can and cant bite. "Suzie this is what you can bite (apples, pacifier etc... ) this is what you cant bite (arms, dogs etc)
Make any sense?
Well, with my son when he would do something that was dangerous- like try to play with the electrical outlet for example, we would pinch his hand and tell him no (again). Nothing too hard, but enough to get the message. A girlfriend of mine told me to do it, and it worked. He is now 2.5 and knows not to do certain things, and doesn't do them. We don't do it for everything, just things that he could get hurt doing. Some M.'s may disagree with it, but I feel like if its something they could get hurt doing, its better to show them that it will hurt- like a pinch on the hand does. Good luck.
At that age, I just diverted my kids. I got them interested in something else. Give her a few more months before you try it. She doesn't understand yet and thinks it's a game.
So for example, if she is getting into something, pick her up and place her by the toy box and hand a toy to her, and say, "Let's play with THIS instead!" It will be alot easier on you too!
Hi K.,
I also started putting my son in time out at 18 months for not listening. He was continually climbing up our couch and its a long fall to the bottom. He didn't get it at first, but after doing it for a week or so, he finally started understanding this was not the place he wanted to be. I just gave him a warning that timeout was coming if he didn't do whatever it was I was asking. If he did it again I put him in there and set the timer for a minute. After I took him out I explained why he was in there and we went on to another activity.
He is no longer climbing on the couch so he hasn't been in timeout for a little while. I have also been putting him in there if he is having a hard time calming down (i.e. tantrum). I don't throw him in there for every little thing. I try talking him out of things first, even tantrums by verbalizing his feelings for him and that has been helping a lot.
Keep at it and she will start to understand eventually.
Hope this helps!
Read the book "the happiest toddler on the block" (you can probably get it from your local library, and it's an easy reference read). It has lots of good advise. Most importantly, don't say "NO" too much (or try not to say it at all), it doesn't work. Try not to get to the point where your daughter is doing something she is not supposed.
It sounds like crazy talk, I know, but if you try it really works. I had issues with my 2 yr old, but have changed strategies, and things got much better.
good luck!
I'm afraid I think your daughter is probably too young to understand time outs. I'm going through this with my son right now, and it is pretty frustrating. Mostly, I just remove him from whatever I don't want him to do. If he throws a fit, oh well, and if he is distracted, then that's great! He's testing my limits, of course, and I do get angry, but I think by showing him I won't allow him to do whatever, I am sort of teaching him, and we'll go further when he's older. Good luck.
I'm sorry to say it's just the age. :) Ours all did it and you KNOW they know they aren't supposed to. My oldest used to scare me with electrical outlets and plugs. I will say the only thing that stopped him was to flick the top of his hand. If he picked up a plug, I'd say "No touch" and flick his hand. I was VERY calm. I didn't want him focusing on my voice as much as the association of "every time I touch this, I get flicked...I'm not touching it anymore". Within a week, he stopped touching plugs and outlets. This helped when even getting shocked twice before did nothing but scare the daylights out of ME.
