Making kids own up to what they did wrong

Platinum Member Joined: Sep 11 2004 Posts: 19241

How do I gently bring my 3 year old to come to terms with the fact that he did something wrong and he needs to fix what he did?

When I try and talk to him to show him what happened, he can't handle it. He doesn't want to hear, he just starts screaming- "Don't talk to me! Talk to someone else!" (which makes me laugh Laughing

) and he throws a fit.

When I wait to talk to him about it later, I don't feel that it's as effective. ie, the mess has already been cleaned up, his younger brother has completely forgotten that he was hit, etc.

I try to tell him a bedtime story every night about a little boy who did just what he did and what happened because of that, etc, but I can't tell if I;m making any progress.

Posted: Wed, Mar 14 2007, 9:52 am Post subject:

Well.. you can tell him that you don't want to talk to someone else, since someone else didn't do XYZ. Or you can give him the choice... of either discussing it calmly and fixing whatever or he can sit in the corner in time out and THEN you'll discuss it and he'll fix whatever.

He needs to understand that actions have consequences and not wanting to hear about it isn't the solution.
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Platinum Member Joined: Sep 11 2004 Posts: 19241

Silver Member Joined: Jun 15 2006 Posts: 893

I have to sometimes control myself from hitting my daughter what I do is I put her on a stool in the dining room and she has to sit there for 2 minutes I set the timer and she can not talk because she is thinking about what she did wrong and by then she is calmer and talks and I make her apologize