Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Timeouts have started

Cade is really testing us now. Let me clarify, he's testing me a little harder than he's testing DADA. DADA can for the most part tell him no or to stop and Cade will stop what he's doing and not look at DADA. Or he'll stick out his bottom lip a little. But for me, the tantrums are in full swing. If I make him do something he just doesn't want to do, he flails his body, throws himself on the floor, all the classic tantrum moves.

Swatting his behind doesn't get his attention. I've been reading a discipline book. One of their suggestions is timeout but the timeout means isolation. They say to put them in their room. If they still have a crib (and he does) to put him in there and close the door. The idea is to remove them from the situation and isolate them from the parents. We tried this over the weekend. It does work to calm him down.... Don't get me wrong, he spends several minutes in there screaming but he'll finally stop. He likes his crib quite a bit. He's like a little Jekyll and Hyde. One minute he is just a little monster and the next he's all smiles and hugging and kissing. And the toddler years are just starting....the book says a toddler is defined as a toddler through 4 years old!

Once the new baby is a toddler....that means we'll have 2 toddlers for about a year and a half. I just hope we get a handle on Cade's tantrums before the new baby starts with the tantrums!

1 comment:

seven said...

Have you tried punching him in the nose? Sometimes that works...