3 year old rage
Anyone have a magical fix for a 3 year old who turns into a punching kicking slapping rage monster whenever he gets put into time-out (usually for something like throwing something or trying to hurt someone in response to a correction for a minor behavior).
I thought i was handling it well at first, I was able to stay emotionally unaffected as I followed through on the consequence and explained again what he did wrong, but lately, I feel like his rage is becoming contagious. I'm getting mad, I'm having to fight the urge to return fire, and I know I'm not thinking clearly in the moment. Hoping to get a new idea without risking physical harm to anyone or to my house itself (he throws hard objects at his door if I close it).
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I would try a different way of correcting his behavior. Time outs aren't for all kiddos, it seems to be escalating the situation instead of improving it.
Try to co-regulate with him instead of time out. Or give him a calm down spot if he needs space first, then try to co-regulate. Mr. Chazz on instagram has great info on this. Putting him in time out to figure out his feelings when he’s already in a rage/primal state might not be realistic… three year olds don’t have much capacity neurologically to self-regulate yet.
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No magical fix... Our son is on the tamer side so corrections are usually eye to eye telling him not to do what he did and what he can do instead. This is when we're not stressed out. When we are stressed out, I have to stop myself and think about breaking the cycle. We don't do time outs cause he can't self reflect at this age. When my son started 3K, he hit me once and bit me once. Both times i stopped what he was doing and asked if someone in school was hitting or biting. He said yes and told me who. Turns out that kid has been attacking various classmates. I explained it's not nice and we don't hit or bite. I dunno if it got through but he hasn't hit or bit me since. I'm also not hearing anything from the teachers.