Misbehaving 4 year old

[southernmamie070203]

My 4 year old misbehaves alot.... I am a single mama and his daddy has nothing to do with him.... He laughs when I punish him or he throws these tempers at me.... The more I puinsh him the more he still does the same thing.....

[redneckmom]

What is he doing that is naughty?  It depends on what he is doing for what the punishment should be.  If he is being sassy, make him dip his finger in apple cider vinegar and then put his finger in his mouth.  This won't hurt him but it tastes really bad.  If he throws a toy, the toy goes in the garbage.  He is the one to put it in the garbage.  If he won't pick up the toys, you can pick them up...right into a garbage bag.  Be sure he knows that this is what is going to happen in a certain time frame(with countdown warnings).  Then you actually have to follow through.  Follow through is very important.  Good luck

[SL345]

Punishment alone is not going to fix the problem. Behavior has meaning. If he is misbehaving you need to understand what is causing it. Is he angry? Are you inconsistent? Has he been indulged or spoiled? You need to find ways to communicate with him about his behavior. Punishment is only one tool a parent has at their disposal. It needs to be used judiciously. Also, punishment doesn't control kids and make them listen. It only sends a message. It should "sting" (not physically), but be brief and then he gets a fresh chance to make better choices. Try to let us know what the circumstances are when he gets punished and perhaps we can be more helpful.

[kaitie]

Well I know I am new at this whole thing but I can tell you what I have experienced. I am a foster parent and we had a four year old that had terrible tantrums. Just one tantrum would last at least 2-2.5 hrs and he would do that several times a day sometimes. I completely understand how exhausted you must be. We noticed that with our lil one the more we would crack down on him and try to punish him the worse it would get...but on the other hand if we loved him or gave him attention then he was fine. The hardest thing is try and figure out what causes these kinds of reactions from him and try to catch his behavior before it gets to that piont. Often if we would recognize the things that he did good throughout the day then he did not act out so badly later, then we were able to sit him down and talk to him about why it was wrong to do what he did and what we would do the next time. That seemed to work really well. So try to catch him doing things that you want him to do or things that are good much more before you concentrate on the bad. I hope this makes sense and is able to help you. GOOD LUCK!