At what age do you think this is an acceptable punishment? Meaning, what age do you think a toddler could benefit from and understand this punishment?
My 3 year old DS is having the worse meltdowns over cleaning up his toys. Today, it got so out of hand and he became so disrespectful. After he calmed down, I told him if this happened again, I would take away his monster trucks (his most prized toys) for a day. I explained to him that he has to take care of his toys and that means cleaning them up. He always says ok and will do better, but then its another war again.
I think it's an acceptable punishment as soon as they can learn something from it, even if they don't fully understand it right away. With my girls, I started taking toys away as soon as they started behaving inappropriately with them. With my oldest, it was close to 2, with my youngest, it was before a year. As soon as she started hitting her sister with a toy, I'd take it away for a few minutes, and tell her "Sorry, you hit your sister with this, so you need a break from it". When they started picking up their toys, if they threw fits and refused to help, (this was closer to 3) I would take the toys that were left out for a day, and tell them since they couldn't pick them up, maybe they didn't need so many.
You could try that if they mean that much to him. That punishment only really started working for my son closer to 5ish. However, he's not really super attached to any one toy. He just knew he had 1000 others to play with until Mommy gave back whatever he lost. At 5 1/2 we took EVERYTHING out of DS's room and made him earn it all back. One of my dd's preschool moms just did that with her older boys (the youngest is 8) and called it Operation Scorched Earth!!! I cracked up and think I may need to use the term if I ever have to do it again :)
Same thing here for DS. who's almost 2 and a half. He gets frustrated or mad, he'll thrown them or bang them. I usually give him a warning about his behavior and what will happen. If he continues, I take the toys he's mistreating away. When I take him to the guest room to get them the next day,, he can verbalize whey they toys were put away. I've only had to do it twice. Now, when he gets frustrated, he asks for help. Never had too many problems with him cleaning them up.
Quoting armyvet06:
My dd is 2 and if she mistreats her toys or throws them at someone then she doesnt get that toy back for the rest of the day.
Totally acceptable punishment and very effective. I do the same with my dd. Just make sure that if your threaten to take it away, you actually do it.
3yr old he should understand.
for me, i use this with dd as a consequence. i also don't let her take out new toys to play with if her other toys are all over the place. she must clean those up first before she plays with something else. if she puts up a fight, she can't play with new toys and if she cries, she cries. they learn pretty fast when you mean business.
3 years old.....yes, more than capable of understanding this form of punishment. Its the only form of punishment that works for my older son :/. Sad, but true. Once I start naming toys, he cleans up his attitude LOL. BUT you ahve to follow through.
I think you did the right thing. 3 is not too young to learn consequences like this. I take away DD's toys for the same reason (she's 5 now). She will lose her toys for a day or two.
I have taken her toys from her also.. when they become the reason behind an argument between two kids. If they are fighting over it, cannot share it.. or are HURTING each other with it, then the toy goes bye bye for the rest of the day.
How's your kid's first day/week of daycare or preschool? Please share! :)
- momdays
on Jan. 23, 2013 at 2:46 PM