(no subject)

[janradder]

Does anyone else with kids have problems with them spitting?

My three year old is constantly spitting whenever he thinks he's alone.  This is usually in the bathroom.  When he's done I find spit on the floor, the step stool, the side of the sink.  Sometimes I find puddles of spit upstairs in his room.  Arie was also a spitter, but I think that's more because he has Tourette's.  I seriously have had it with the spitting and even more  so with finding it all over the house.

Comments

[geniusofevil.livejournal.com]

my three year old is an occasional spitter (he has a bad influence friend.) Two things you might want to try are making him clean it up himself and timeout. And then you can remind him that childhood is not supposed to be fun.

[janradder.livejournal.com]

When he's mad at me, he frequently yells at me, calling me, "Bad Daddy." I want to make a t-shirt with that on the front -- Bad Daddy. There are some days when I feel like I'm just walking around the house finding things to tell him to stop doing. (I have tried the clean-up/timeout approach which is why he has taken to hiding the spitting -- maybe I just need to step it up).

[geniusofevil.livejournal.com]

a spit hider, huh? Devious.

You can put them in time out for the bad daddy thing too :)

(time out is my favorite of all punishments. I wish I could put everyone in timeout)

[janradder.livejournal.com]

I hate timeouts only because Arie set up the dynamic that when you are in timeout you threaten to do all sorts of horrible things while screaming about the injustice of all, you repeatedly get up out of the timeout, and you throw any nearby object(s) (or, if none are readily available, run across the room and grab some). It really is a very unhappy time in our house.

[geniusofevil.livejournal.com]

Yeah, those suck. Then you're left with the dilemma, do I force the kid to pick that crap up wasting even more of my time and patience, or do I clean it up myself because it's just easier that way.

My five year old threw a tantrum at Target a few weeks ago. Not only did she tell everyone around that I was 'ugly' and 'mean' but she bit me too. Good thing we were in public so I couldn't do to her what I wanted to do.

[deanarae.livejournal.com]

I'm in time out right now. It's terrific.

[geniusofevil.livejournal.com]

what were you in time out for? I try to get put in timeout quite often (32 minutes, baby!) but the kids are on to me.

[deanarae.livejournal.com]

Spitting.

[pnew8.livejournal.com]

My boys, particular one boy, did the spitting business when he was in grade school. Outside, on the sidewalk, the lawn. I think it was a socially-learnt trait. Men spit. Other boys spit.

Make it okay to spit in a particular location? Say into the toilet bowl or outside in a particular spot.

Time out didn't work perfectly in my household either. The eldest son is ADHD. I used the timeouts as half of the child's age. Sometimes, it was an area they were confined to. Their room or the living room. I kept a running dialogue of how much of the timeout was left depending upon how vocal they were. If they weren't very vocal, I told them when it was half over and then when they had a minute left, then a half of a minute. Lots of eye to eye contact before and after timeout. Always. With Dale, I'd have to actually take his chin and lead his face so that he looked me in the eyes.

Another thing, I learnt was to tell the kids things 'to do' rather than what not to do. Making it simple. Never explaining and explaining something. If they asked for an explanation, it was always a simple sentence. And, if it required lots of telling, I'd skip that and just say that is the way it is. At least, while they were very young.

[silk-noir.livejournal.com]

My 3 year old spits--but she spits more for the noise. Lots of raspberries. She did spit a drink the other night when she was in her crib and was receiving the goodnight 1/8th cup of Kool-Aid. She was spanked, believe me. And then had to wait while I changed her damn bed.

[janradder.livejournal.com]

With Éiden, a lot of the time, spanking (or the threat of it) seems to be the only thing that will work. Most everything else, to him, is a big joke. I just hate having to resort to it. I used to run preschool and toddler classrooms without ever having to lay a hand on a single kid yet now that I'm a parent, I spank. I saw this book title the other day -- I Used to be a Good Mom . . . before I had kids. The book is probably absolute garbage but I laughed at the title and certainly saw myself in it.