How do you verbally reprimand your child?

what works for me is the 1-2-3 method. If I tell him to stop doing something, and he continues or ignores me, he gets 1. If he continues, he very quickly gets 2. And after that, all bets are off. His punishment depends on what we're doing. If we're out somewhere, if I get to 3, we go home. I'm not afraid of leaving a full shopping cart or leaving a restaurant or anything. Kids seem to know the right times to push buttons, and those times are usually when they figure that you'll be embarrassed or too busy to follow through. My son knows that I will take him out of whatever we're doing if he gets to 3, so he rarely misbehaves in public. If he throws a tantrum because we're leaving, I pick him up and carry him out. In one instance where he freaked out in a grocery store, I just put my arms around him and held him in place and said calmly to him "we're not going anywhere until you calm down". I held him like that for about 5 minutes til he stopped crying, then checked out and took him home. If we're at home and I get to three, he gets sent to MY room--not his room, because his room is where all the toys are, and I'm not going to reward him by giving him something to do. So he sits on my bed and doesn't get to play until I decide to let him out. I'm not a big believer in the one-minute-per-child's-age thing, because I don't think 5 minutes is long enough if he's deliberately misbehaving and ignoring my warnings, then he'll get 10 minutes. If he's screaming and carrying on, I make it clear to him that 10 minutes starts when he's calmed down and the longer he freaks out the longer he's going to sit there. It's not perfect, but he knows what my expectations are. He knows that naughty boys don't get to do fun things, so if he wants to go to the park or play with his friends, he has to behave. I don't expect him to be like a little robot and follow every command, but I do expect him to listen and not do things he knows he shouldn't do. I can count on one hand the number of times we've gotten to 3 in the last year. He knows that if I say 2, I mean business. And he's old enough now that I pretty much just skip to 2 right away, if it's something really important that I'm warning him against.

I'm no expert mommy but I have found that it is all about consistency with my son. Time outs do work in public places and sometimes can be more effective. We have sat on the curb outside of Toys R Us before 'until he was able to regain control of himself'. He understood that VERY well.... I have to stop screaming and act like mommy tells me to act or I will not being going back into that wonderful place. You may have to take two full days and make a believer out of her again. Tell her stop doing something. When she does it again tell her that if she does it again she will need to sit there by you (or whatever) for making the decision to do it again. Do it all day long if you have to. Kids are very litteral, they need to see and experience what will happen when they make the choice to not listen to you. They eventually learn that doing something mommy tells me not to do causes me to lose freedom, be taken away from my toys, what have you. All the while, make the learning process more about making good choices and listening to mommy and less about being right or wrong. My son and I talk a lot about mommy wanting him to learn to be a good listener and make good choices so he doesn't get hurt.

yes man this is a very serius problem you should be very carefull about it

I would get down to there level, hold them firmly and say "no" into their face. That way they cannot tune you out. If the behavior continues, then you need to repeat getting down into their face and tell them that they will be punished with whatever you want to do, if it happens again. If it does, you must follow thu with your threat, or it will continue and get worse. Good luck. It isn't easy raising kids.

My daughter is 7 now and sometimes gets into mischief..But I just try and explain to her why Im not happy and like she could have been hurt etc...I find it really effective rather than screaming and shouting..

The one thing that I always say to my son when he is doing something he isn't supposed to is "Please stop that..." and then I follow with "it isn't nice," "you might get hurt," etc. That usually works, but if it doesn't. He gets a number. I don't count all the way to three on the same crime or anything, though. I just give him one number. The first time during the day he does something, he gets the number one. That usually calms him down and makes him stop doing it, because he knows what happens when we get to number five. To follow this method, you have to reward them when they do something extra nice, too. Like if my son picks his toys back up before naptime without me asking him to, I say something like "Remember how the last number Mommy called was three? Now we are back to TWO because you did such a good job helping mommy out." What happens when you don't get all the way to number five is something that you will have to decide yourself. At our house we make it letting our dog get in bed with him while he gets an extra two books at bedtime. Because that's what he likes. If we make it to number five. He only gets his regular two stories and the dog doesn't get in bed with him to cuddle. Another thing we do is put a sticker on his chart everytime he doesn't make it to five. After he gets his chart full, he can trade it in for a new toy or book. I really like this method, because it gives him a clean start everyday. He knows that he's working toward something when he behaves. He really likes it, too. And it's helping him learn his numbers, and how to count backward even.

Every parent raises their children differently. I was a single mom for 10 years. I have three children. I believe in spankings. Not beatings. I'm not talking about hurting the child but a spanking on the bottom to let them know you are serious. I have not had to spank my kids in probably two years. My oldest is 14 and she hasn't had a spanking in 5 or 6 years. My second child is almost 10 and my youngest is 8. Neither of them has had a spanking in about two years. The reason is simple. Once you show them you are serious and that their behavior in not acceptable, all thats left is the reminder. When my kids start getting out of line I either count up to 3. I have to say, I normally don't make it to 3. If I say 3, they know they get spanked. Or I ask them if they need to be reminded that I mean what I say. Kids aren't bad. They are what they are, kids. And they are going to try you. I know a lot of you will frown on my ways. But like I said, every parent has their ways. I personally don't believe in time out. But that doesn't mean other parents shouldn't use it. I also have another method of punishment that has only been used once. The punishment of taking their toys away. I'm not talking about one or two, but all of them. But that was a case where they wanted to argue about who's toy was who and who was going to clean what in their bedroom. I'm not saying my children are perfect angels that never get into any trouble. I haven't met a kid like that. But they know what's acceptable and what isn't. But on a general, all I'm at the stage where all I have to do is remind them. But it took some time to get there. Be persistent. If you're not, they won't learn. And definitely reward them when they are good! That helps to let them know you are proud of them for being on their best behavior. Good luck!

i believe what u do at home is what u do in public, don't worry about what anyone else thinks. my two tried it once in public and found its just the same as at home so its not worth it. most kids know they have an advantage over parents when out due to the lack of parent consistency. also a tired child is not going to behave so take that into mind when organising your day, shopping get them involved. my two children have been taught not to touch to put there hands in peace when we are shopping and to use there eyes. unless i ask them to do so. but reading your post again if listening is a problem it may be your childs hearing also fun games to teach about listening is to whisper to each other and then try yelling out things together and in funny voices or accents this teaches children to listen. also another fun game is to make a tape of household sounds and see if they can guess what they are so tape the telephone the doorbell etc. this teaches them to listen