Ok I have a bit of a dilemma.

Aeryn is at a sort of inbetweeny age at the moment between baby and being a proper toddler.

She's certainly not a baby anymore, she's walking and has a basic vobaulary and she understands a lot of what is said to her, like "no".

But she still generally thinks everything is a game and if ever i tell her off for something (thats normally a firm "no, naughty!" she just smiles at me lol.

But now when she gets annoyed she's started hitting me (and only me so far). She's also started "scream" crying and having mini-tantrums when she cannot have her own way. I am wondering if her "terrible 2's" are coming early!

Today for example we were out in town and she was trying to grab and drink someone else bottle from their pram. I picked her up (not roughly) and said "no aeryn" in a firm voice but then she headbutted me then hit me across the face!

I know today she was very tired and when she gets tired she gets very agitated and when she's in that sort of mood she doesnt want to be held or told to do anything. She's pretty willfull and independant and I try and respect that in her. But I feel it's really wrong to have her hitting people (even if its just me lol) and I don't want to start down the making excuses route.

I don't think she'd get the idea of the naughty step yet but I feel like I should do something when she's behaving like this?

Feels odd even saying "naughty" about her becuase she's still so small and just so interested in everything and anything. But I don't want to get into bad habits >_<

Any thoughts or suggestions?

Umm dont know about corpol punishment as this would only be teaching the child that its ok to hit back ..thats my opinion ..I have a friend with a very fussy spoiled 3 year old and she hits her sometimes and well I can tell you it doesnt help one bit ..mabey get down to her level and look her in the eyes and tell her " no" firmly just like you have and when she hits you hold her hands and tell her no again ..

I dont know much of the punishment thing as my LO is only 3 months old , but ive babysat Mikah the 3 year old and tried the technique myself and it worked ..I watch too much supernany

Nooooo! Thats the title of my thread but only because I have a warped sense of humour

I'd never hit my daughter i'm just after some tips on diciplin as per my post

ahh ok lol phew got scared lol

As i said Ive only seen this technique and worked it on a 3 year old that im sure your daughter is an angel compared too and well it worked so might want to give it a try

Hmm perhaps I need to be firmer then, she just laughs at me, that makes me laugh too, so she probably doesn't feel told off!

well i have a 2 and a half year old and he has bad tantrums he has started to say no to everything i ask him to do. i dont believe in hitting or slapping any children .
now hes in nursery it should make him better but its making him worse in fact

My sister's LO is a wee bit too young to understand the naughty step, but my sister puts him out of the room when he's naughty so he's removed from society (where every child wants to be). Might be worth a try?

Mine are at a similar age to Aeryn so I know where you are coming from. Thankfully (?) they take most of their frustrations out on each other rather than other children but the scrapping can be quite bad sometimes.

The worst things I get are snatching stuff from the other one or hiting/biting/experimental whacking with another object. If they snatch I always give the thing back to whoever had it first and tell them not to snatch C/T had it first. If they hit/bite etc., then I get down really near them, say "NO" really loudly and firmly and then tell them they mustn't... whatever...Then I turn my back on them and ignore them for a short while and give loads of attention to the victim.

Sometime they cry and nearly always have a bit of a sulk and then come shuffling over for a cuddle. When they do I say... are you sorry? Say sorry to C/T then. Obviously they don't, but we do sign language and I do the sign for sorry at that point.