In the last six months a lot changed, we moved to a new house, my wife had a baby (girl) and my son turned 4 and started school.
I’m not really sure if this is the reason but for the last month or so, my son has more and more temper tantrums. Basically any time we tell him no, he gets very frustrated and angry. Sometimes shouting or pushing me. It’s pretty new behavior and I really don’t like it. I have talked to him after the tantrums and he usually agrees he shouldn’t behave like this, but so far it keeps coming back. One other thing he does is just ignoring us whenever we ask him something he doesn’t want to do, pretending he can’t hear us.
The last thing I want to do is be angry or use threads (like I’m counting to 3). But sometimes it’s the only way to get him to do something (like getting dressed for school).
I would really want to have a better way to communicate without the negativity.
Whenever you do punish him, regardless of why, be sure to follow up afterward (calmly) have a talk about why he was punished and ask him what he could’ve don’t to avoid his consequences. I’ve also been told that if you whisper while they are yelling, it gets their attention better than yelling back. I haven’t had a chance to try that yet.
Good luck! You’re doing a great job!
Thanks, the talking and explaining we already do, but the whispers sound interesting, I’ll give that a try.
We always try to explain, we are not mad at him but what he’s doing is going to get him hurt, or that we really need to be on time because the teacher is going to start class and the other kids also need her attention, etc.