Thursday, March 25, 2010

Hitting is so not cool.

Hello dear friends and family....

Well, as some of you know my little sweetie pie has had another ear infection this week. This is only her third one, but if you have had a child with an ear infection, you know how miserable an experience it is...for the baby and for YOU! My usually super happy child was a super grump on Sunday evening through Tuesday. Thankfully, she is starting to feel a lot better. She has some strange red spots on her face that we are going to inquire about tomorrow from a dermatologist. (It is nice living in a medical community where the leader of your small group is a resident dermatologist that can get you an appointment in a day's notice.)

Anyways, my child has started hitting lately. And, I know this is very common with children her age...testing the limits, seeing what kind of reaction they can get, and that sort of thing. But, I am having difficulty knowing what to do about it. I believe in spanking...don't get me wrong...but does it make sense to spank, or "hit" in a sense, when the crime itself is hitting? I don't know if that is confusing to a child her age. Is time-out at this age effective? So, if you are a Mom, and are experiencing this problem, or have experienced this problem before...let me know what you do/did about it. I would love some ideas, opinions...advice! Thanks!

2 comments:

Laura said...

Oh Missy I feel your pain! I have struggled with this issue forever. We spank as well but like you, I never thought it "made sense" to say "no hitting" and now I'm going to "hit" you to remind you not to hit! Huh? I know that spanking is biblical and we absolutely spank if it is needed but I have found myself using other discipline for hitting. I think that she IS old enough to benefit from a time out of sorts. If she hits you could take her hands firmly in yours, look her in the eyes, and firmly say "hitting is NOT ok, we do NOT hit" and then put her somewhere "not fun" for a minute or so (her crib perhaps?) to give her the message that you are not going to put up with that behavior. I bet it wouldn't take many times of that for her to get the message. I also like to remind my kids that we don't use our hands to hit, we use our hands to hug:) Another thing we do is when we need to spank we never use our hands; we use a plastic spoon so we aren't confusing them about the "no hitting" thing.
Hope this helps a bit....hang in there:)

Missy said...

Laura, THANK YOU! This is great! We have been doing time out in her crib. I know this is a phase, but I am not enjoying it. Haha. Thanks again. SUPER helpful!!!