not listening

I give my son options so he feels he has some control in the situation. E.g “it’s time for bed. Which pjs do you want to wear?” The more choices he gets in a day, the more likely he is to go along with some things without a choice. (Depending on how tired he is). You can also try ‘when and then’ method or similar. “When you brush your teeth, then we will go and play”. Perhaps instead of taking away the iPad, only give it if he shows good behaviour in the first place. “You did a really good job getting ready this morning. You can play games on your iPad for a little while”. Then take it away when that time is up, maybe have a visual timer for him to see when time is up. Then you can give it to him again later on. Granted some days you can go through all of the options and they don’t always work. (At least not with my son!) There’s some great Instagram pages such as biglittlefeelings. If you’re a reader, try ‘how to talk so little kids will listen’ Good luck. It’s so hard x

@Jasmine thankyou, that’s all so helpful, i’m definitely going to give those a try today!! it is really difficult, i get so frustrated and don’t like to take my frustration out on him, but he’s really testing my patience at the moment 🤣 yeah i will definitely read that and have a look at the instagram page, anything to help him and to help me XXX

I would say just don’t expect instant results but sometimes they surprise you 😂 and every toddler is different. I feel you. I’m finding this stage the hardest yet! They’re just so defiant 🙈 x

I'd avoid punishments that involve taking something away without an opportunity of earning it back again. Otherwise you risk teaching them to do hard time, they know you'll give it back eventually & they just have to wait it out. & rewarding good behaviour is more affective than punishing bad behaviour.

Similar to above advice. I give options but it has to be stern. For example: Are you sitting in your seat yourself or do you need mom to help you? ….after a few minutes.. okay. I’m going to count to three. You can do it yourself or after 3 mommy will help you sit. Giving time warnings also help like: okay, we are going to take a bath in 3 minutes (you can be lenient with time, but keep counting down) 2 minutes left don’t forget! One minute left then we are going for a bath. Alright, times up! Let’s go! High fives have so much power. Every time they do something right or listened, say how awesome that was an give them a high five. It encourages them to do behaviors to get that reaction more. Drbeckyatgoodinside (instagram) talks a lot about what you can do instead of frustration or punishments and gives you tools for what you can do instead and what can work in those highly frustrating times.

Another thing: We are all frustrated. We are all dealing with premature threenagers like dude wait till you’re three at least lol, I’ve had a thrreenager since she turned two 😂 I get it. It’s hard, it’s frustrating. But it’s up to you to give her the tools to work through these times. Another issue I have and often have to remind myself. As communicative and articulate as my child is, I have to remember that she’s still only 2/3 and that’s still so so young. She seems like she understands most of everything and that’s great but I can not put the burden of understanding how things work and what she should or shouldn’t do on her, because that would be unfair to her, and unfair to myself for thinking that too. Breathe. You’ll get through this.