The hitting continued.
At one point, he even motioned for me to bend down towards him, like he was going to hug me, then he slapped me on the cheek.
(He also unraveled a roll of toilet paper, put an air freshener in the toilet, and tried to climb out of his crib.)
I wouldn't have minded the other stuff as much, but I cannot abide the hitting. As proud as I am of how smart Baylor is, I would rather have him be dumber than a stick than be a mean person. There are too many mean people in this world as it is, and I would consider it a failure on my part if he grew up to be a mean man. Or even a mean child. Kindness is highly underrated, and hitting should never be funny - which he thinks it is.
So I'm asking for any help or advice you can give me. How do I teach him that hitting is not okay? And before anyone suggests it, we do not spank at our house; that's just another way to hit someone in my book.
Give me what you've got. I've tried telling him how nice people don't hit and how sad it makes Mommy (which he should have gleaned from me starting to cry after he hit me - it didn't hurt but I was at my wit's end). How people who hit don't get the things they want. But I'm not sure it sank in.
Help! Please!!!!
2 comments:
Oh wow, you poor thing. We also don't believe in hitting. I have never had a situation like that with Annie, so I'm not sure that I can give you any hands on advice.
What I can say is that at Baylor's age, there is no such thing as malice. He is probably just trying it out to see your reaction. What does his dad do when it happens? I think it's really important that a father models to his son how to treat women. So it's really important that his dad take a firm stand and say that what he is doing is unacceptable.
Also, it is probably just a phase. This too, shall pass.
I think that as long as you guys have a united front and show that it is not funny, he will get over it quickly. There is no violence in your home, so he will have nothing to emulate.
(I just had a thought, did he see something like this on tv?)
And when he sees that he is not getting any love or attention with that sort of behaviour, he will get bored with it.
Sometimes it's good just to take these things lightly and realise that they are just children. So easy to say when it's not my child, isn't it?
Good luck.
He is a good boy, he will be fine.
All the best,
Ola
xxx
You can rest assured that this is just a lovely phase. Been there, done that 3 times.
What we always did was after a hitting incident we would take their hand, and hold it down at their side and say, 'We don't hit. It's not nice.' They would then be put in time out in the location of the hitting. I believe in time out where the "crime" occurred because by the time we would move them somewhere else they would have already forgotten what the time out was about. So, for example if we were sitting on the couch and there was an incident, hold their hand down by their side, say the speech, then set them on the floor and tell them they're in time out. At his age, 1 minute is a fine time. After the minute has passed, get down to their level, explain in simple terms again, hitting is not nice. We would then ask them to apologize. If we were reading a story or playing with a toy we always would put whatever activity we were doing away and would get something else to do. Thankfully for us it was a quick passing phase. He is just doing it to get a reaction. When he realizes the reaction isn't fun, it will pass quickly.
But I agree both you and Bryson need to handle the situation the same way (however you decide) so he gets the idea it's not a good idea to hit.
Post a Comment