Toddler Discipline Strategies
Simple & Effective!

We might not always carry out toddler discipline the 'right' way, and often we have reacted instead of responding to the misbehavior. A quick removal helps us calm down and think of the best approach in order to correct a misbehavior and reach the heart of the matter.

Applying positive parenting when disciplining children has helped us add variety to our discipline strategies and focus on the motivation and 'heart' behind the behavior. We try to keep the child and behavior separate.

Our challenge is never to allow our disapproval of the behavior and our love for the child to get mixed up and overlap.

Approaches To Child Discipline
  • squat down to eye level and talk to your child firmly and lovingly
  • hold your child close and softly whisper corrections into their ear
  • 10 count--help your child count slowly to 10 & regain self control
  • have a set of clear & visible written out family rules
  • breath together--deeply in the nose and out the mouth 5 times
  • remove a privilege or a valued toy for no more than 1 week
  • time out--regain self control & reflect why time out was received
  • occasional bribery can be useful both in and out of the home
  • behavior reward systems, great motivators & keep kids focused
  • use a shopping cart or stroller as an 'in store' controlled time out
  • use a crib for an at home time out
  • use a car seat as a removal time out strategy while out & 'about'
  • interactive discussions of observed good & bad behavior while out
  • biting from intent receives half a lemon to bite down on
  • use interrupts or a physical attention grabber to stop misbehavior
Our time out strategy always follows the same pattern--removal, wait for the child to regain their self control, allow them to tell you why they made you give them a time out(extend the time if they did not reflect about it), emphasize repeatedly your love for them but highlight your disapproval of their chosen behavior, guide them to getting their heart right and making an appropriate apology.
Find out which toddler discipline strategies work best for a child, specific to the misbehavior--defiance, hitting, biting, foul words, lying, deception, negative attitudes, disrespect, instigating and making a mess or having an accident all need to be handled with different levels of severity.

Be consistent and follow through quickly without giving repeated chances.

Once we viewed each misbehavior potential development 10 years down the road, we got real serious about following through with disciplining children. Toddler discipline really is a lot of constant work and quite tiring.

Keep up with it. Your effort and persistence will be well worth it!

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