Child Slapping

BigEejit

I have a little girl who is 2 and a half .... if she does something bad you can tell her that its bold and usually she'll stop doing it. That works 9/10's of the time. Some days she is contrary and she may continue (e.g. stamping food into the carpet or other OTT behaviour.... )

My wife and I differ here .... my wife will give out to her or talk to her and maybe remove the source of the problems and continue like this (usually ending up giving the child a snack or something to divert her), this can go on for bloody ages and at the end of it the child may do the same thing again ... I think the long talk etc gives too much time and the child will forget that such and such a thing is wrong..... in other words, you cant reason with a 2 1/2 year old.
I give a warning and if it still happening then I give a single slap on the bum, and she still wears a nappy so it wont hurt at all. Not too hard, but not too soft either. Thats the end of it. The bad behaviour stops right there. I've done it twice (6 months apart).

In the last couple of months people have commented how much better behaved the child is when she is in my company compared to when she is in my wifes company only ... it is not fear I think, when the child gets into unsure situations she always runs to me for comfort, when the two of us (my wife and I) are sitting on the couch she climbs into my lap always. I think it is respect. I do not aim to hurt the child, but it works where the tree-hugging-hippy thing would not .....

And before people get their knickers in a twist and start flaming me for slapping a 2 year old on the nappy, state if you have children - some of the most belligerent posters here would appear to not have children, I think that such people have a very rosy idea of what parenthood should be all about ... good luck with that. You'll find reality quite different.

Finally, I'll say again - you cant reason with a 2 1/2 year old ....