Need Help with My 2 Yr Old

Updated on November 02, 2006
C.W. asks from Jessup, MD
9 answers

I don't know what to do with her. She won't listen to me. When she is bad I give her a time out and try to talk to her about it. But the whole time she is in time out she finds something to do or starts talking. When I'm talking to her she laughts and makes funny faces. When my son was 2 I never had to deal with this. What else can I do?

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L.R.

answers from Reading on

I am going through this also. You can read my post ~ I got some good tips there. It is called My 3 year old is ouf of control. I feel for you becuase I am right there too.

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J.L.

answers from Philadelphia on

If she is in time-out and making noises, ignore her. If she is making funny faces, turn away from her and don't look. She is waiting for a response from you. If she keeps it up, take her and put her in her room. If she continues, close the door. Time-out can't be a long time for this age. I wouldn't give her a time-out for more than two or three minutes at this age. Their abiltiy to rationalize is not like yours at this age. Their ability to figure you out, however, is a whole other story. They can figure that out from your response. Don't give her one.

One thing I am STILL (LOL) learning, is not to compare. I have twenty years between my two daughters. My oldest was so easy. My little one (5 years old) has a totally different personality.

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C.J.

answers from Harrisburg on

Okay...I agree with the other responses, although I would not time the time outs. Be glad she is sitting for time outs.LOL.
I would place her in the chair, and tell her when she is ready to behave, and ready to appoligize she may get up. Let her make the chioce on how long she sits there. Whether it is 5 min or 30....It is her choice. If she talks, whines,funnyface making...IGNORE HER. Do not even let her know you see them, act like she is not there until she is ready to behave. Once she is ready, and she gets up talk about it, and then drop it.
Hope this works, I have had great success with this.

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S.

answers from Harrisburg on

During timeout the parent needs to completely ignore her for the whole timeout(which for two years old should only be about 2 minutes), it doesn't matter what she says, you can't respond, or she will only do it more. Just remember to try to tell when she's being good how proud you are, and good she's being, sometimes that will at least help have fewer timeouts- good luck!
S.

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A.D.

answers from Washington DC on

C.,
All I can say is count on this until she is FOUR!!!
For time out you can always put her in a chair and have her face the corner. When my son was acting up I had a big box in the closet and I would put one of his favorite toys in there. He wouldn't get it back for a couple of days. The box was on the top shelf of the hallway coat closet. I would catch him standing there looking at the box. It worked most of the time.
Good Luck!!!

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S.C.

answers from Washington DC on

Hi C.! I've had problems similar to your with my daughter. She is 3 and likes to talk back. I'm not sure how you feel about spanking or your religious back round but according to the Bible it says spare the rod spoil the child. That is saying if you spare the rod (spanking) your going to spoil the child. I use time outs and take things away and try speaking to my daughter. The last resort is a spanking. She is old enough to understand what your saying and she needs to know what she is doing wrong. There are a couple of things I suggest. Change the way you discipline to see which way works better for your child. Try putting her in an area where she is by herself when in time out where she cant play with any toys. Let her sit there until she calms down. During this time dont try to explain anything to her if she cries let her cry and tell her she has to be quiet beofre she can get up. after she is quiet let her sit there for no longer than 2 min. Than after you tell her she can get up get eye level and tell her that what ever she did is not ok. Dont make a long sppech about it because they cant keep their attention span that long. Just shorten the words. IF time out doesnt work try taking away one of her favorite toys. It may take a while but you have to stay on top of it or she will think she can rule you. She is still at a stage where she is testing you to see what she can do or cant do. Hope you find something that works.

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T.S.

answers from Washington DC on

I also have a 2 3/4 old daughter, so iam there w u . These are very frustrating times, and do get better w time. She is trying u and u have to hold fast. If u give in sometimes, that sends her a confused message. She thinks, okay when mommy tells me to do something, it's negoitiable, u have to make her realize it's not. She will get it(sooner than it seems) and it will get better, so just hang in there and stay consistent, also w the time out, u can put har in a high chair(supervised of course) and that way she has limited choices, because at this age it is still hard for them to sit still w out getting distracted. GoodLuck :)

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M.B.

answers from Washington DC on

I have the same problem with my 2 year old son so when you get some feedback let me know. please

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R.H.

answers from York on

You need to make your time out area somewhere where there is no stimulation, not even visual. Put her in a room that doesn't have fun pics, or a tv, or toys, or she will amuse herself by looking at things. She's too young to reason with, so be very basic with your words. Instead of trying to explain why she can't do something, just explain to her in a few words why. Tell her You can't hit mommy because it hurts. Don't go into detail. Whatever you do, if you tell her you're going to do something, then DO IT. We have had so many problems with our 2 1/2 year old because we told him we were going to do something if he did whatever again, but then we didn't want to follow through with our punishment. Giving choices is another option. If she has a fit in the store or doesn't want to go to bed at night, give her options. Instead of telling her she can't scream in the store, or she has to go to bed, tell her you can either stop screaming, or we're leaving, or say you can either go to bed yourself or mommy will take you there. It sounds unimportant, but they love it when they get to decide.

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