Threats and bribes

I swear by sticker charts. At that age they understand that getting a sticker is good. At the end of the sticker chart they get a reward - I made it a Thomas DVD as Andrew loves Thomas. You could make it a sticker a day if she doesn't get put in the naughty corner. Make a big deal of getting a sticker each day and make sure she understands that she doesn't just get a sticker she has to earn it.

I've looked after a friends lil one for a few days once, and I love her approach for a lil one and I soooo intend on using it whenever I have kids lol..

Andrea's toys were all in one of those big plastic boxes which was decorated all pretty by her and her mum but it has a lock on it. when she's good she's got free access to it. when she is bad, it gets locked up and she has to earn her toys back one at a time, one for each hour that she is good. And my friend has been very very consistant with this and she's an angel to look after. One warning and then she knows whats next so she stops straight away.

When she's a really good girl she gets to do art with her mum or whoever is looking after her. her mum brought all these sparkles and stuff from spotlight and some glue and lil pots of paint and stuff and she loves it to bits that she's always sooo good because she knows that only happens when she's a good girl.

I found the time-out corner really worked for us. Jake had time to calm down and so did I! the problem we have now is Taine "visiting" and organising "prison breaks". we are pretty strict with the warning and then into the corner though. I try to give him lots of praise when he is doing something nice and I rarely reward him with food. Funnily enough he goes staright past biscuits to raw carrots at present. weird kid.

With dinner we have the "one-bite rule" we put a little bit of everything on her plate, making sure the servings aren't too big.. remember serving as big as the palm of their hand,   if there is something she doesn't like Paris has to have at least 1 bite of it.. same with new things.. I go by the idea that you have to taste it at least once to know you don't like it. after that, if you don't like it (within reason..) then you don't have to have it again.. we leave it and try again in a few months. If she's being silly with dinner, won't eat it all or whatever, set reasonable limits.. I usually say to Paris "ok, eat 2 spoonfulls of veges and 3 of meat and then you can finish" she thinks she's won.. we know that at least we will get 5 more spoonfuls of food into her. lol

Again.. we sometimes have nights where she is left, with 1 mouthful left in her mouth, the last spoonfull we gave her to eat.. she has been know to keep a mouthful of peas or carrots in the side of her mouth for up to 45 mins.. we now set a limit on these times.. whereby if she isn't finished by the time the kitchen timer goes in 3 - 5 mins then its jammies and bed.

Sometimes i feel we are diplomatic in our approaches, and sometimes i feel like a real harda$$

and my favourite Jake trick is when he leads me to the biscuit jar and in his babble whispers "cookie...(points at daddy) shhhhhh"

Lol Janine, we do the "one more bite" thing too, but it's usually a bribe coz Maya wants a piece of bread and butter, so I make her eat say two bites of meat and two pieces of brocoli first so she doesn't fill up on bread.

With the threats, she hadn't had a smack in about 6 months and the past couple of weeks she has been a real monkey and every second sentence out of my mouth seemed to be "If you don't ..... then you'll get a smack". Till Willie pointed out that it was useless just threatening it coz she knew I wasn't going to smack her. So the other day I finally followed thru and gave her a little tap on the leg , and she got such a fright that she's been pretty good since (how long will it last tho?). Not saying smacking is the answer, more just following thru.

Another thing that works for us is counting to 3. I'm not sure what would happen if I actually got to 3 coz Maya usually gets that I mean business and picks up her toys or whatever she's been told to do.

Oh you don't sound hopeless at all! Strong will is one of the hardest battles against parents! Keep it up

I just thought of something else really ridiculous that I use to try and get Han to do what I want her to - The 'Super Excited Voice'. Sound like an absolute idiot but it's more effective than 'Grumpy Mummy Voice'... most hilarious when you alternate between the two.

Still sounds silly You'll have heard me doing it! hehehe

Love it!

Mine is usually followed by a "Hannah! Stop throwing the flipping peas on the FLOOR!!!"

And Anna - just typed up a mega-reply to your PM and apparently your inbox is full. The next reply will be considerably shorter.