Great ideas from everyone!
I think it's important to not group all your kids into a one size fits all discipline box. What works for one may not work for another. With my boys time outs would sometimes work (use a timer so they aren't sitting there unnecessarily longer than needed), taking away a toy for a short period of time or sitting out during an activity.
What worked the best with my youngest son was telling him how I felt. He did not like it if he hurt my feelings. This gave me a great way to explore feelings and talk the issues out even at a very young age.
Kids are smart, they know how to push your buttons and they also feel you. If you are overly busy, tired or stressed they feel this and sometimes mimic their parents frustrations by acting out or vying for your attention. Or vice versa they might be overly stimulated, stressed, tired over worked etc and are expressing it in irritating ways. Maybe they just need a little time and space to themselves.
Take care of yourself so you can stay grounded and come from a centered place where you can effectively deal with the situation at hand in the best possible way.
In the heat of the moment have yourself and your kids all take a moment to sit and be quiet so you all can regroup and take a breath. Practice breathing timeouts when they are not in trouble or needing a break so they know what's expected of them. Show them how you can stop what your doing, get quiet and take a few deep breaths then talk about whats going on when everyone is calm.
Enjoy it, even the frustrating, irritating hard moments. They are all part of a very important job. The job of being a parent. It's the best and most important job on the planet. You are raising the future. They grow up sooooooo fast and are out living their lives before you know it. How we parent our children will set a precedence of how they potentially will raise their own children. Make every moment count.
It does take a village to raise a child and how lucky are we that we have so many strong voices to bounce our ideas off of at the blog frog?!
