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4.05.2010

Tricks of the Trade Question: Disciplining a 1 year old!

I'm pretty sure Disciplining children is usually a question most mom's have since there are several ways to discipline and many people are very opinionated about certain ways, my question this week is on disciplining a one year old child.
I guess the question is more like, when to start discipline! I have a 16 month old boy and we have been really lucky with him so far, he is really good and so far he isn't mischievous..(yet!)! I haven't really thought about types of discipline or anything yet for him since he doesn't really do anything wrong yet, especially on purpose, I just figured he's to young to think to really discipline effectively. Anyways I have a couple friends with kids his same age and a little while ago one mentioned putting her kid in a time out when he misbehaves and the other uses 'spankings' as a threat to get hers to stop. It seems like these work for their kids and i'm sure getting in the habit of a specific discipline plan young is good so they will know when something is bad and there are consequences when they do it. The one thing Dylan does that i'm pretty sure he knows he shouldn't do is hit the TV, for now we just say no, and turn him around and make him walk the other way, my husband used to grab him before he got to it and lay him down and hold him there for a minute saying it's not okay, but then he wanted to make sure not to be too aggressive and scare him so we just kind of remind him with no and hope that he will get it soon. Is this something, in your opinion, that should have any kind of punishment?? He still seems young to me for a real punishment but I want to get him in good habits!
So I made this question long, but what is your discipline techniques and how young do you start them???

3 comments:

Jaedyn said...

My daughter is 2 years old now (next month actually!) and I totally went through this stage. Wondering if and when I should start disciplining. At 16 months, they definitely start noticing that they can make you react and keep doing little naughty things!

I think, though, that at that age they're still a little young for, well, discipline. I think you're doing right! If you wanted, you could firmly say, "No, don't hit the TV, Dylan" and put him in a pack 'n play in the same room - if he doesn't like being kept from moving around he might start recognizing that he gets put "away" when he hits the TV.

Every kid is different, and develops at different paces, so keep that in mind. This worked for me - my daughter used to pop me in the face and then laugh... it was really frustrating. She didn't like being put down or being put "away" so that worked for me. If you decide, just try to be consistent. :-)

You'll figure out what works with your little guy! :-) You certainly don't have to do anything but what you're doing and I think that's fine for now.

Lindsey

Tanya said...

Yeah that's tough, I've seen mom's and dad's spank these little kids and the poor kids probably don't even understand what they did. I stuck with saying "no" and focusing them on something else until about 2yeares old.

My daughter now 5 hit alot when she was little but I never did any discipline till she was 2, I finally realized she was old enough then to know that hitting was something you don't do. Once after she hit me I realized she probably doesn't know that it hurts since she's never been hit beofre, so I hit her on the arm, not super hard but hard enough to sting, and she hasn't done it since. Now I just put her in time-out if she does something wrong usually 1 minute for how old they are (I learned that in a love and logic class.)

I put my 18month old in time out once, I sat him on the stairs after he pulled his sisters hair, mostly just so she felt better, but it was only for like 30 seconds if that and made him give her a hug better. But for the younger kids I think saying "NO" and re-focusing their attention is the best for me.

Shelly said...

I think the best thing at this age is just removing them from the situation. Like everyone else has said, refocus their attention, take the toy they are hitting with/throwing away. Kids are easily distracted at this age.

Love and Logic also says, "Oh, its time for a little bedroom time," and you put them in their crib/pack-n-play for 1 min. I used this technique when my son would throw food off his tray. "Op, that's too bad," and dinner was over and straight to the crib for some "bedroom time". It was VERY effective and he stopped throwing or dropping food within a couple days.

I will admit, I am not as good about doing the same thing with my second son. Hee hee.