[survey77777]

G occasionally hits me when he's getting tired. He doesn't seem to want to hurt me. He doesn't seem upset or angry when he does it. It's like he just wants to see the cause and effect kind of thing go down. It's usually when I'm doing something else and not looking at him or paying attention so I"m sure a lot of it is to get my attention.
How would you handle this? What do you guys do when your LO does something inappropriate like this? He whacked the dog with a drumstick this morning too

[momoftwins]

I would just say "No, no. We don't hit." When the twins were little, I remember having to break out the fake cry a couple times. That worked like a charm with Avery for things like this!

[MrsLMB]

This doesn't totally apply here but I came across a good discipline article today...

No Bad Kids – Toddler Discipline Without Shame (9 Guidelines) | Janet Lansbury

[-erin-]

Juliet isn't really a hitter. When she is angry she will flail out and sometimes hit us, but I don't know if it is as much of a conscious effort to hit. I think a couple times I have held her arms and said no, we don't hit, and then do my usual ignoring her for a minute while she tantrums a bit.

If she's rough on the dog or cats then I take her hand and show her "nice pets, gentle pets" over and over and make sure to praise her when she is being good with them.

I thought we had her biting thing kicked, no incident since before Thanksgiving, but on Wednesday she dove for a bite for the same boy that always bugs her. Hopefully that was just an isolated thing and won't happen again. The other girls hit the boy when he bugs them, but Juliet seems to know that the bite gets the most reaction from him. And he knows just how to push all her buttons when he wants to.

[edgeofelise]

Eliza sometimes hits, but she's very responsive when I tell her to be gentle. Sometimes she head-butts, too, but that's because she thinks it funny. Same thing with pushing us over, she thinks it's hilarious when we fall down, get hurt, say OUCH really loudly, etc. especially if she was the one to bring it about. I think it really amuses her to see that she has such an effect on big people. It's a game to her. I think it's funny but I do my best to keep a straight face and not encourage it, because I've seen her do the same thing to unsuspecting kiddos, and that's not really cool. I've busted out the fake-cry, too, and it works super well. She'll say, "K?" and give kisses. Pretty cute.

When she's older, hitting or lashing out will get an immediate time-out. I don't think we're there yet, though.

[gingerrae]

We tell Elijah "no hitting" and some times I grab his hand if he tries again or if he's not listening. I also make sure that he apologizes to the person he hits and gives them a hug. We don't have any pets so we haven't had to cross that bridge really but I know once the baby gets here we will be telling him "gentle" and "be nice" a lot.

[lunarmagic]

Kate doesn't usually hit. But one day she was "experimenting" with the drum stick and nailed me right on the top of the head. I didn't need to fake my yelp and whimper on that one. She was a little confused, laughed, and tried again.... I said, "NO, no hit!" and took it away. she hasn't tried it again since.

I'll definitely pull out the fake cry if she does something to hurt me if she doesn't get the picture. Me saying, "No no" is just getting a lot of giggles from her lately. Grrr.

[survey77777]

Yes...he thinks "ow" is funny too. I have the same problem as Danielle with not laughing about it...unless he gets me good. I think G has the same rationale for doing it.

I like that article LeAnne...thanks for that.

I remembered as I'm reading all of these that at his 18month appt. the pediatrician recommended that we put up the playpen again and put him in that when he hits and throws. She said to make sure it's not punitive just a different and direct distraction. Keep toys in it and when he asks to come out bring him right back out. I should probably actually try it.

I did use the advice from the article that LeAnne posted about using first person talk. It did actually seem to work. I said to him "I won't let you hit me with that. If you hit me with that I will take it away." This was all as he held his cup over my head with a big silly smile on his face. He sobered up and put it down and we moved on. We repeated it 3 times and it worked every time. Hopefully I'm on to something.

Thanks

[lunarmagic]

Oooo. I like that idea Nicole. Going to have to try that with the other things she's been doing that are driving me crazy.