Hellobee Boards

I find it more effective and makes me feel less bad to say what I want her to do or what she can do instead of telling her what not to do. So, instead of saying don't jump on the couch, I say please sit on the couch or please jump on the floor instead.

I'm not an expert or perfect at this by any stretch of the imagination, but I *try* to look at things from LO's perspective and "be on his team" and compromise. I feel like even doing that, I still yell too much. My other strategy for trying to not constantly tell him no, is to take him to his playroom where there's very little for him to get into trouble with, or I get him out of the house, to the kids' gym or zoo or whatever, where he can burn off some of that energy, but even that isn't always possible (like today it's SUPER cold, definitely not going anywhere!)

@hilsy85: yes a broken record! Exactly how I feel. My son is 4 and I feel like I've been doing this for years. I feel my negativity is being tuned out by him so I try to reframe and be positive but like seriously sometimes I just want to say no don't do that and I expect he'll listen! My kid definitely seems to be a boundary pusher.

No real advice but offering commiseration and hoping for some good suggestions too.

LO just turned three and she's killing us. Bedtime (after lights out) is an hour long battle which includes dramatics previously unknown. I suggest the wrong shoes this morning and it resulted in hiding under the kitchen table while screaming. Some days I feel like I. Just. Can't. I try very hard not to yell and DH is trying harder too these days. It doesn't help that when I do actually lose it and yell, she generally listens, even if she does start crying because she knows I'm mad at her. I need my threenager to stop being a threenager.