Suitable Punishments for a 5 year old

No TV for as long as you choose and help you clean her room or something else around the house

Just be aware, you may get a lot of comments mentioning TV and how you shouldn’t punish a 5 year old. It happened to me when I was talking about how my kids go outside alone with their friends and how my daughter’s 5yo friend snuck over early in the AM.

My 6 year old is exactly the same. We’ve been dealing with lying, stealing, etc since she was about 4. But the way we parent her, is she’s got a lock on her door. We have a ring camera in her room. And so we know when she’s up. We leave her room unlocked, so long as she doesn’t take advantage of it being so. She can leave to use the potty whenever she needs to. But if we ever catch her out in the living room, we let her use the potty once before lights out, and then she gets her door locked till the morning when we let her out and start getting ready for school.

Punish as u see fit .. my 5 yo literally does what she wants and the most she gets yelled at or put in a corner just for her to do it again so I’m open to new ideas 😭

@Samantha im definitely expecting those type of comments because everyone parents different but at the same time if she gets punished at school she can be punished at home

What about a rewards chart? What does she like to do? I have alot of trouble with my 5 year old at school and ive started a rewards program

Take away tv.. if it’s not too much work for u pull it out of her room so she can see the seriousness.. also writing is a punishment I started when my daughter was 5… “I will keep my hands to myself” 5 times

All punishments are tailored to each child for sure. A rewards chart is a really good Idea because it rewards good behavior, which to a child they end up doing more and more. They love and thrive off of praise. As for punishment take away what is most important. My 5 year old loves his iPad. (Which he only gets in the car to begin with) But one day he was not listening and being defiant. So I took the iPad for two days. Every time he asked for it I asked him why he can’t have it. He had to reiterate that he didn’t listen. So when he did get it back and stops listening I just ask want me to take your iPad again? It shows him that I am serious in taking it away. So when I threaten it he takes it seriously. For your specific situation there are wake up clocks. So it turns a certain color when they can get out of bed. I would do a double system reward and punishment. Just make the reward AMAZING to her.

I think the punishment needs to fit the crime. If you had an issue with the tv on then no tv for tonight. Although if she’s used to falling asleep with the tv then her putting the tv on could’ve been an attempt to get back to sleep and so I personally wouldn’t punish that. It’s a bad habit to fall asleep watching tv, I know, but it was how we got our daughter to fall asleep alone her in room so we allow her to watch tv until she falls asleep. On the nights she wakes up and has trouble going to sleep I turn the tv back on and she will watch until she falls asleep again. Otherwise she will fall asleep in my bed without the tv, we don’t have a tv in my bedroom. For things like not playing with a toy properly, not cleaning up etc we’ve been removing the toy/ activity for a certain amount of time. For example she was playing with slime in a way she shouldn’t have so we said no slime for two days, explained why.

I wouldn’t have a TV in her room…my parents never allowed that for us growing up either as they said they wanted to foster a connected and attentive home, not to keep us kids in holed up our rooms. Even now my partner and I don’t have a TV in our room we just have one for the household, downstairs in the main room (no cable, it’s a SmartTV and then in addition to 1 streaming service and PBSKids we rent DVDs from the library). I have the opposite problem lol my kindergartener is up my butt and I can’t get anything done, feel like a cruise ship director most days and it’s either I’m assisting her with a craft or guiding her block building, outside of homework and reading.

For me I think punishments should relate to the crime if possible so I would take the tv out of her room. A 5 year old should not have a tv in their room anyways imo and 930 is extremely late for a 5 year old to be up watching tv if they have school in the morning or just regardless because screen time before bed really messes with our natural sleep patterns. Def not trying to come off judgmental or harsh but I think if you took the tv out that stuff like that would happen a lot less with her being up in the middle of the night.

(Continued) She’s recently been given the responsibility to put her tablet on charger and turn it off when not using it. If she doesn’t, natural consequences, it dies. She doesn’t get it until it charges. I LOVE natural consequences as long as it’s not dangerous. Stop climbing/jumping on things. Doesn’t listen, time out. 5 minutes for a 5 year old. Also if you get hurt before I send you to time out.. “were you supposed to be doing that? That’s why we don’t do that.” I’ve also been TRYING to be better about telling her how great of a listener she’s being and how she’s being a great helper etc. so many times we tell them about bad behavior but not good behavior which could be just as impactful.

Go to the trampoline park or the park and sit her down so she can watch good mannered kids have fun. Explain to her why she can't play. Tell her when she changes a certain behavior, you'll take her to the park and she can play

@Joanna I have the same problem 😂 I have “living room kids” they’re always doing something in the family space and sometimes it’s annoying but I can’t complain because I’m so happy they’d prefer being around the family versus in their room isolated. The only time they spend in their room is the wind down reading time they do in bed right before bedtime

I’ll definitely take these things into consideration. She doesn’t own a tablet any more or really any electronics because she fights with her brother when hers would die so neither of them have any electronics really. She does have a reading leap frog and my son has a learning book to help him communicate because he is on the spectrum. We have TVs in every room of the house because that’s just what we chose to do. Thank you all

For my twins, if this was the first "offense," a talk about it without too much lecturing. If it happens again, then consequences.

For a 5 year old to waking up in the middle of the night. Seems like she might also be dealing with some sleep issues. Having access to TV just enables her to stay up. You can take it out her room until she understands or doesn’t take advantage of it.

My 5 year old is also starting to act fresh like that and sneak away, is it a phase idk but I’m overwhelmed especially with a newborn

@Angel this sounds alot like what i do with me kids too. Even down to the acknowledgement of good behavior. Praise for good behavior goes a long way for sure.