The answer to this question is that a lot of the behaviour you might think of as naughty is actually developmentally appropriate
for them, they need to discover where the boundaries are cross them, dance on them and then give in to them in order to grow
e.g. a toddler will mess around with their food, while learning how to feed them self it fun and when they are told not do
it, time and time again its a learning process a slow one but a learning process never the less.
They may also misbehave just to get your attention, small children will do almost anything to get your attention. That's
why it's important to praise them when they're behaving well because if you only take notice of them when they're doing something
bad, they'll keep behaving that way to get attention, they do not care if it is negative attention it is still your attention.
Toddlers will hit, bite kick, pull hair and generally fight back if someone wrongs them, its completely normal they have
no control over their temper but they defiantly have one, some more than others but they all have one. It is important to
challenge this behaviour in a calm manner, acknowledge your child's feelings of anger and powerlessness, talk it over with
them and acknowledge that they are angry and explain that for example "that the toy isn't theirs and the little girl was just
taking it back" and that it not ok to bash her over the head for it, toddlers reactions are often physical but with your guidance
they will learn to control their anger and feel empowered as they learn to settle their differences through words, this takes
many years and some adults have never mastered the technique, so be patient.
If your child is tired or ill or they are fed up their behaviour is likely to be worse, so try to make allowances for these
times, they are just like us. You need to accept that looking after young children requires a lot of energy and effort, and
no one can keep up positive discipline perfectly all the time.
There will be days when everything gets on top of you there is no such thing as the perfect parent it is a myth made up
by magazines and books to sell you their products, no one can be perfect all the time and trying to be super mum can lead
to a myriad of other problems, so just do your best and don't try to live up to some fictional creature who is like Mary Poppins
and never has a bad day.
All parents do and say things they regret or handle situations badly, when this happens, say you're sorry, reassure your
child that you love them, explain that your behaviour wasn't appropriate and try again. The upside of this is that it teaches
children a valuable lesson that everyone gets things wrong and that when they do everyone no matter who they are they have
to apologies and make up for their mistakes.
