After the age of 2, I saw Ayven’s vocabulary go from sweet talking to attitude and tell you the truth it kinda freaked me out. All he started saying was “that’s mine”, “that’s my mommy, don’t touch her”, “no, I don’t want to do what you say” and at school he was getting reports of pushing other kids, hitting kids, sometimes even biting kids. I know it’s part of growing up and all kids go through this, but I wanted to find ways to help him understand what he was doing/saying was wrong. Or from the other side, other kids were pushing him, biting him and lashing out and he would get very angry and retaliate. When do you tell them to stand up for themselves and when do you tell them what they are doing is wrong??? This is a tough question for any age child.

We tried the punishing thing, but that totally backfired..the more we yelled at him at home..the more he let it out on his friends at school…which is when we had to start our chores and rewards system and used alternative ways to say no. [Read more...]