Testing our limits

How to discipline a child when he/she is testing our limits.

Depends on the age of the child - what will work for a 12 month old will not work for a 3 year old and that will not work for a 15 year old.

He knows what is the real mccoy!

For a bit of amusement - get yourself an old Barbie doll form someone and give it to him - it will bring home the difference between boys and girls when he does what he does with it!


Our boys had older girls as sisters - they too would pull everything apart - they got hold of the barbie dolls and held decapitation parties, wrapped string around their necks and threw them off the stair case so they would be hanged - even before they were 3 years old and had definietly not been exposed to any sort of behaviour in the home or on TV!

Sometimes I don't know what to do either when my little girl tests my limits.

This morning she wanted her sippy cup. I told her to wait because I needed to change her nappy. I took her nappy off and she refused to lie still. She was frantically trying to reach her sippy cup. She was screaming and crying away. I didn't give in because it's quite dangerous lying down and drinking. And I didn't want her to lie on the bed without her nappy in case of "accidents". So I ended up scolding her, pressing her down and changed her nappy. It was tough because she was unco-operative. I got to the point where I really wanted to spank her so I just poured her milk from a bottle to a sippy cup, sat her up against her pillow, gave her the sippy cup, then left the room so we could both calm down. I left for about 10 minutes while I told my husband and used the bathroom. Then I came back in, she gave me her sippy cup (almost finished) and gave me a smile. I told her to apologise and then she spent the next 10 minutes hugging me....

But sometimes it can get really unbearable..... I was already quite unhappy with my maid for not helping out (she sleeps till 7.30am and in the afternoon with baby and I'm the one who feeds baby and put her to sleep from 8pm till 8am in the morning) so maybe that's why I lost my patience this morning.