When my baby was in the crawling stage, discipline was easy. She would joyfully play in the playpen for hours and the only mess ever she made was during meal times or on her own clothes. I knew it wouldn’t be this way forever, but time went by so fast, I barely noticed it.
Once she learned to walk things were totally different. She loved to explore and get into things that she shouldn’t. She would make messes with anything she could find (e.g. newspaper, magazines, and juice) and laugh hysterically the whole time. It was a full time job cleaning up behind her, but I didn’t mind, because it was all innocent.
Soon after the walking stage, she began talking and that’s when the discipline problems started. She started biting us, saying “NO!” when we told her to do things, and she would even throw objects at us. My husband and I immediately decided to put an end to her bad behavior. We already knew a few methods that we learned by helping to raise our nephews and nieces in the past. From our experience with our nephews and nieces, we learned that that consistency is the most important thing when disciplining.
My husband and I both had to cooperate to make it work. We constantly had to watch what she was doing to catch any bad behavior and stop it immediately. This gave our daughter the impression that even if we aren’t around, we could see what she is doing. When we caught her doing stuff that she knew was wrong, we would punish her by taking her favorite toy or telling her “NO!” in a loving, but stern voice.
Her bad behavior faded away in a little over a week. She no longer bites, throws, or talks back. Toddlers are very impressionable. If you can get him or her to be well behaved early in life, chances are you will have no problems in the future. Just remember to be consistent
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