Green Mom: Discipline

I have a problem. I don’t know how to discipline my toddler. Before I had him, I would see notices in the doctor’s office or at work about parent workshops on discipline. I thought those were unnecessary, that disciplining my child would come naturally, something that’s done by instinct. But then my son started playing with the lamps and the radiator covers. He started pulling hair and biting us (thankfully no children, just his parents). We say a stern No and redirect him toward his trucks or books, but he just laughs or flashes us a big grin and continues what he was doing. I have found that with some things (the radiator cover being one), if I just “ignore” what he’s doing (and by ignore I mean don’t say anything but watch him out of the corner of my eye), the behavior stops a lot sooner. But with things like biting and hair pulling, I can’t just ignore the behavior. Sometimes it really hurts! I’ve tried explaining things to him, but since he’s only 17 months old, I’m sure I sound like Charlie Brown’s teacher and am making no impact at all.

I’ve heard great things about Dr. Harvey Karp’s Happiest Toddler on the Block and the board book Teeth Are Not For Biting so I think a trip to the library may be in order. If those don’t work, you may just see our family on Super Nanny in a few years.